One problem at a time, please
by thunderbird shadow
Summary: Kayo has been teamed up with a group of crooks to fight the Mechanic and isn't happy about it. But what is the Mechanic up to? And what will she have to do to defeat him.
1. Chapter 1

"RED ALERT. RED ALERT. INTRUDER DETECTED. INTRUDER DETECTED."

Kayo heard the alarm and dropped from the window she was crawling through before charging down the hall she was in. Laser bolts, electric spears and barbed darts fired at her, as she just managed to keep ahead.

 _So much for a simple_ _spying mission,_ Kayo thought. Cursing the exceptional security and wishing Brains would hurry up with his heat – masking technology, she rounded a corner and found herself approaching a huge shaft with a narrow, unrailed walkway stretching over a dozen metres to a corridor on the opposite side.

Kayo faltered in her step, wondering if she should try running the other way. Almost immediately, a laser bolt scratched the back of the open vest she was wearing. A spear then ripped away what was left while a dart struck her boot.

Spurred on, Kayo sprinted awkwardly onto the walkway. It shifted under her weight but she kept running. Then, a section of the walkway fell just as she ran over it. Kayo looked down but couldn't see the bottom of the shaft.

Kayo continued as piece after piece fell off behind her. She thought she might be able to outrace it but a whir from above caught her attention as a laser on the ceiling rotated and fired, knocking the entire structure down with Kayo on it.

Kayo took a running leap forward and reached out to grab the door's lower edge.

Another shot from the cannon hit her wrist-comm, spinning her to the right as she slammed into the far side. Kayo grabbed at the edge, but she was left-handed and facing the wrong way. With a desperate scrabble, she slipped and fell. Pulling out her grapple pack, she fired it at the corridor roof.

Finding her mark (her farthest kill was 225 yards, Scott would never find that out), the line went taut and Kayo body-slammed against the side of the shaft. She smashed her helmets face plate and had to discard the entire thing. Aching all over, she let out a sigh of relief before reeling herself in, drawing her gun and destroying the troublesome cannon.

 _Why me,_ she thought to herself. _This kind of undercover work is Penelope's alley._ Kayo paused. _Then again, maybe not._ But still, she specifically hadn't wanted this mission and Scott had _still_ assigned her regardless.

"The things I do for International Rescue," she muttered to herself, reaching the corridor and retracting the grapple. Not for the first time, she wondered if I.R's goals were worth working for Scott Tracy.

Oh, she didn't mind that he had stopped complaining about her crime-fighting, and God knows the mission was very important. But turning-around-and-teaming-up-with-petty-thieves-because-he-thinks-that-we-need-their-help quite sucked in Kayo's line of thinking. It sucked a lot.

Actually, it was worse than that, because Scott had decided that this crook should make the plans because he had inside information on their target.

The plans that had her in her current predicament.

At least things couldn't get much worse, Kayo thought to herself. _LIKE FALLING THROUGH THAT TRAP-DOOR THAT HAD_ NO _RIGHT TO OPEN UP UNDER MY FEET JUST NOW!_

Kayo let out a yelp as she fell. It was only a 7-foot drop, but she still brushed the nasty looking 3 1/2 foot spike sticking up out of the floor (Kayo was 5 1/2 foot). Another inch or two forward and... Kayo breathed heavily as she staggered backwards and curled up on the floor for a few seconds.

Then her training kicked back in and she jumped up, chastising herself for losing her grip. She looked around and saw that this place had only one hallway branching off it – with a light glowing at the far end.

Kayo stepped forward, but her way was suddenly barred by row after row of blocks that sprang out from the walls down the entire length of the corridor.

Each block was a meter apart from the rest and was made up of 4 rows of shifting walls, each with an open square in one corner, all rows shifting together in a complex pattern that a person could get through if only they were quick and agile enough.

Kayo rallied herself and charged, jumping and diving, ducking and dodging, twisting and turning, making her way towards whatever was on the other side.

Five minutes later...

Kayo reached the last of the shifting blocks and saw what was on the other side. It was a control room, and standing there hooked up to the controls with his back turned to her, was the person she had been sent to spy on.

The Mechanic.

Kayo waited for the right combination, then dived swiftly and quietly through the hole.

Or tried to, on the last row the wall suddenly changed direction and pinned Kayo to the floor before shutting down, leaving her trapped right behind IR's current archenemy.

"Nice moves," The Mechanic congratulated without turning around. "Though, you shouldn't have allowed your helmet to smack against the shaft wall."

"Thanks for the tip," Kayo smiled, short of breath. "Now, if you would let me up. I would love to show you some more."

"Anything that I didn't teach you?" He taunted.

Kayo blushed, remembering that he had taught her. She really should get around to telling her brothers that she knew who the Mechanic was, at some point.

"Um, no," she admitted embarrassed.

"I thought not," the cyborg rumbled, but he still let her go. Kayo drew herself to full height as The Mechanic continued. "What are you doing here?"

"Project Sentinel?" Kayo probed. The Mechanic roared with laughter.

"Project Sentinel! that's just _one_ of the Hood's projects that I'm reviving," he bragged. "And it's just a short-term terror device, anyway. Not like the others. Oh, Kayo, you wouldn't believe the things the Hood has shut down on his conscience."

The 20-yr old co ops officer frowned. _That_ was certainly a disturbing discovery. She pressed on. "Such as?"

The Mechanic finally turned to her and glared. "You think I'm going to tell _you._ " He adjusted something on his right wrist and a Wasp Mecha dropped down in front of Kayo, swung its saw and cut off her gun belt before tossing it aside.

The Mecha went to electrocute Kayo, but she was quicker, using both hands she grabbed its head and wrenched it off. She then reached over and snapped off the wasps tail (they were surprisingly fragile). Pulling her arm back, she flung it, still buzzing, at the Mechanic.

He jumped out of the way, and the tail hit a Scorpion Mecha that was just climbing down the wall to join them. The robotic arachnid sparked and dropped to the floor, down for the count.

Kayo jumped/dived towards her gun, but it was swept aside at the last second by a Snake Mecha, which then coiled around her outstretched arm. Kayo grabbed one of its heads (the Mechanic's snakes had one head on each side) and tried to shove it off, but the snakes other head came around and bit her on the shoulder.

As Kayo winced in pain, it uploaded an electronic virus into her uniform through its fangs, causing her suits circuitry to flare up and twist about, shredding her uniform to ribbons and sending electrical currents through her body.

Kayo screamed, the pain driving her to her feet. She slammed the drone against the wall and slammed her body into the drone,disabling it. The wicked contraption slipped off her arm and onto the floor.

Kayo turned and saw the Mechanic escaping to his ship, the Magna Prime. Grabbing her gun, she aimed at him and fired.

The Mechanic's head jerked and he crumpled to the ground.

Shocked at how easily it had happened, Kayo raced over to check on him.

The Mechanic pressed a button on his left wrist, and a square of the floor shot up with her on top of it. She was launched onto another square of floor, which tipped under her weight, revealing a vat of burning waste.

Fortunately, one of Kayo's Gecko Gloves still worked, and she used it to grip the floor as it continued tipping. The Mechanic came over, she could now see that it had been a holographic drone.

"Sorry, kid," he apologized, actually sincere, as he pulled out his 'drill' and shot her hand.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Kayo yelled as she slipped down over the edge towards the burning pit below.

 **From watching the series Kayo appears to be left-handed, which is why I made the comment in here.**

 **Hope you enjoyed.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to all those who reviewed. Here is the next chapter.**

After Kayo fell, the holographic drone collapsed while the real Mechanic fired up the Magna Prime. He hadn't wanted to kill Kayo, but time and again she had interfered with his plans, often def... setting him back.

Now, she had discovered his power-processing station and he was going to have to destroy it and find another. It was incredibly inconvenient.

 _Oh, well,_ he thought. _At least I don't have to worry about_ her _anymore._

Kayo closed her eyes and braced herself. Images of her brothers started to flash through her mind...

She hit something.

Kayo opened her eyes, confused. She was alive! She looked around, a purple quad bike had rammed the container aside. Kayo looked up and found herself facing...

"What are _you_ doing here?'' She snapped at Fuse, who had caught her.

"You're welcome," her cousin smiled back. "Dad sent us as backup. After your comms went down, we came in after you."

Kayo rolled her eyes as she stood up. "My hero," she laced with sarcasm. Fuse made a mock bow, then did a double take.

"You look pretty," he chuckled. Kayo looked down and saw that most of her uniform had come off, leaving her in her underwear, boots and a glove.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded and dozens of Mechas swarmed into the room : Wasps, Scorpions, Snakes and Ants.

"They've found us," Fuse said. "C'mon." He and Kayo jumped onto the quad bike (Fuse called it Basher), which was driven by Fuse's teenage sister, Havoc.

"Hold on," she called, swerving around and heading towards the nearest exit. Fuse was disappointed.

"Can't we stay and swat the Mechanic's little pests?" He whined. Havoc and Kayo glared at him, then stopped when a giant Spider Mecha dropped down onto the Basher. Fuse perked right up. "Alright," he roared excitedly, jumping forward and punching the drone off the vehicle.

Havoc dodged a group of Scorpions while Fuse grabbed his machine gun and took out several Wasps, hollering away the whole time. A Porcupine Mecha shot tasered quills at them and took out one of their tires, nearly knocking Kayo off, but she regained her balance.

Then, the Mechanic himself landed in the doorway they were aiming for and raised a hand for them to stop. Havoc gunned the engine, but hadn't reckoned on the Mechanic being the world's best hacker (John Tracy simply had better equipment). The Mechanic remotely slammed on the Basher's brakes, flinging the trio over his head, across the tunnel and through the hole the Chaos Crew had cut in the side of the base.

The Mechanic swore and followed them, flanked by his murderous drones.

Outside, the trio had landed in some soft mud.

"Yuck," Kayo shuddered, trying to wipe the mud off herself.

"You should dress more modestly," Havoc remarked snidely. Havoc didn't like Kayo. After all, she considered them 'petty thieves'. This was an insult to Havoc, who was rather proud of her job and considered it very important.

Her father the Hood had ordered them to work together. Of course, she didn't have to like it.

Remotely bringing the Chaos Cruiser in, Havoc, Fuse and Kayo boarded it and flew off. Just before they lost sight of the place, Fuse pressed a button and strategically placed bombs went off, creating a chain reaction that destroyed the entire plant.

The Mechanic piloted the Magna Prime out of the explosion.

 _Delays, delays,_ he thought to himself. _Always delays._

* * *

Scott Tracy was on call with none other than the world's most wanted, the Hood himself. His younger brother John was hovering in the background, like he always did.

A couple of weeks beforehand, the Hood and the Mechanic had had a massive showdown at the Grand Sequoia Dam, and the Mechanic had come out on top. He'd escaped with some massive batteries to power Project Sentinel, something that had the Hood shaking. The Mechanic had also stolen the Hood's cybernetic eye, meaning that the Hood couldn't fight him. He had asked for International Rescue's help to take the Mechanic down, but Scott had refused.

Then, a week ago, the Mechanic had hijacked several energy collector satellites and started beaming their power somewhere else, too much power to _just_ be working on Sentinel. He'd nearly defeated IR, and would've too. Fortunately, the Hood had sent the Chaos Crew after the Mechanic, and working together they had managed to stop him.

After that, Scott had given way and formed an alliance with the Hood.

"I can't thank you enough for lending my niece to me for the time being," the Hood was saying. He now sported an eye patch where his cybernetic eye had been. "She's been most useful since she arrived, though she still grumbles that she doesn't want to be here."

"I'm glad she does," Scott smirked, though he felt a little guilty for sending her in, despite her fierce objections. "How's the investigation going?"

"They're just arriving back now, so I'll find out in a few minutes," The Hood explained. "I'd better go and meet them. Goodbye for now." His hologram flickered out.

Scott turned to John, who'd been monitoring Kayo. "How's it going?"

"Just fine, everything went off without a hitch," John assured him. He wasn't so sure it was a good idea to mention to Scott that Kayo was offline, or that the Mechanic's base had just blown up. However, from transmissions he'd picked up, it appeared that the Chaos Crew had rescued Kayo, so best not to get Scott worked up.

Just then, the rest of the Tracy family piled into the lounge: Grandma, Virgil, Gordon, Alan and Brains.

"Hey guys, what's up?" John asked.

Sally Tracy stepped forward and waved her phone in Scott's face. "What's this notification we just received that Kayo has QUIT?!" She almost yelled, though she looked more worried than mad.

John frowned and looked at Scott, annoyed. He'd followed Scott's logic that they had to cover for Kayo while she was working for the Hood, but John thought that he had talked Scott out of his plan to lie to everyone that she had quit. Obviously, he had been wrong.

Scott shrugged. "I don't know. I just got a call from Kayo this morning to say that she was quitting. I tried to talk her out of it. But she kept insisting. So, I let her."

Grandma Tracy could normally tell when her grandsons were lying, but right now they were all too worried and distraught to notice the tell-tale signs on Scott's face.

"But why would she leave?" Sally seemed on the verge of tears. "Was it us? Was it the Hood? Was it something else?"

Scott shrugged again. "That's what I asked her. She wouldn't answer." He looked at John, who was clearly struggling to keep silent. John took the hint.

"I'll see if I can contact her," he lied before signing off.

Scott turned back to the others. "Either way, I have invited Penelope and Parker to the island to take over security for the time being. They should be here in an hour, so we should get ready." Scott stepped forward and hugged his grandmother, his brothers joining in.

"I'm sure its not anything to do with you," he reassured her.

* * *

Kayo and Havoc stripped down – not much work for Kayo – and stepped into the showers.

Kayo sighed in contentment as the hot water ran down her, washing off all the muck and grime she had accumulated. She turned to Havoc, "So how much did you hear?" She asked.

Havoc thought for a moment, "Thanks to your body-cam, up until your fight with the snake. We heard the Mechanic boasting to you about his plans. You knew the Mechanic?"

Kayo gaped at her. " _You don't know who he is!?"_ She shouted.

Havoc shook her head. "He had an accident about the same time that you left, he's been wearing that mask of his ever since. The only other thing I know about him is that he and Dad never got along very well. Who is he?"

Kayo was too stunned for words for several seconds. "Never mind."

Havoc frowned. "Huh?"

"Seriously," Kayo insisted. "If you don't know then be glad you don't. Honestly, I don't know why their partnership lasted this long."

Havoc turned away to hide her smile, she knew what Kayo didn't.

At that moment, the door opened and the Hood walked in.

"Hey," Kayo turned to him, annoyed. "I'm into these two new fads. They're called knocking and privacy."

The Hood rolled his eye and turned away. "So, what did you find out Kayo?"

Kayo started washing her hair. "I didn't get a good look around. However, I did meet the Mechanic."

The Hood smiled to himself. "How is our old friend?"

Kayo ignored the jibe. "He said he is working on other projects besides Sentinel. He said that next to them, Sentinel is just a short-term toy. He hinted that they were other dead programs of yours. I believe his exact words were 'you wouldn't believe the things he's shut down on his conscience.' "

Havoc listened with interest. She had never considered her father as moral, so the Mechanic calling him squeamish had her extremely curious. Did the Hood really have a conscience?

Probably not.

The Hood whirled, looking like he'd seen a ghost. "Oh sh*t, tell me you're joking." He walked right up to Kayo. "Swear to me you're bl**y joking."

"No, she's not, Dad," Havoc cut in. "Me and Fuse heard the Mechanic say it himself over the comms."

The Hood swayed, memories of all the things he _had_ shut down passing in front of him.

Kayo finished in the shower, turned it off and wrapped a towel around her. "What is it? What exactly _did_ you shut down that's so bad?''

The Hood thought. "Well, where to begin?" He scratched his head. "One of the more recently abandoned projects of ours was in Africa. I still remember the location, AND while abandoned it was never truly shut down. If the Mechanic was after things formerly mine, that's one of the first places he would go."

"Great. We'll head there first thing in the morning." Kayo announced, heading for the kitchen to get a bite before heading on to bed.

The Hood was deeply troubled. He didn't know what was worse, the Mechanic getting his hands on some of these operations, or them arriving before him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to Anne, Peter, Susan, Creative girl, Bow Echo and all others who've read this story.  
**

 _The next morning..._

The Hood had given Kayo a jungle camouflage military uniform to replace her flight suit. They were going to be investigating an abandoned base of the Hood's in a jungle in Southern Africa, to see if the Mechanic had gone there. If he wasn't, they were to destroy it before he could use whatever the Hood had there.

The Chaos Cruiser was almost ready for launch, but Kayo was confused...

The Hood was coming along to the base in Africa where this equipment of his was said to be stashed, but that wasn't the weird part.

The weird part was that he was currently loading the Chaos Cruiser with all kinds of weapons: Explosives and bombs, Sub-machine guns with Armour-piercing rounds, elephant guns, high-caliber rifles loaded with hollow point bullets and even some experimental laser weapons. The Hood insisted that all of this was 'absolutely essential.'

She had tried asking him why, but he had said to wait until they got there. 'No need to scare anybody just yet,' had been his exact words.

 _That_ had her worried, so she changed tack. "What was the project called?"

"Nothing, it was a company that I was financing. They had something I wanted, so in exchange for funding they worked with the Mechanic on some stuff out of the public eye," her uncle explained. He then waved her off, too busy to talk.

After that, Kayo wandered about aimlessly (at least, that's what she hoped it looked like), and checked out several of the numerous storage rooms around the base situated deep under the Sahara.

Some of them were empty, the Hood's operation had been almost entirely destroyed after his arrest, and he was still trying to rebuild his empire after his escape a few weeks ago. Others had older equipment that was no longer as effective now that counter-measures had been developed.

 _And then the Mechanic turned on him and made away with a solid portion of his empire. Boy, the Hood's got it rough._ Kayo shook her head, it served him right, anyway.

She then noticed a side door off the vehicle storage room she was in (OK, some of the equipment was pretty far advanced. And the motorbikes had simply gorgeous designs) that had a slightly rusty padlock.

Heading over to it, she soon had the lock picked and went inside. The place was filled with boxes. Heading over to the nearest one, she opened it up and looked inside. Nice, they were all filled with blueprints, Kayo looked around at all the boxes filling the room. There were so many that they couldn't possibly have all been used.

"The Mechanic is very smart," Kayo said aloud to herself. "He must have made heaps of designs. Then, the Hood could fund the less advanced to build more of them. Allowing development of much more advanced prototypes and whatsoever for whenever he was ready for them. So THAT'S what the Mechanic was getting at. It's nothing to do with the Hood's being scrupulous, but all of the best and biggest of the Mechanic's designs were on hold. Now that he's no longer working for the Hood, there's nothing but us to stop him from going ahead with them."

"That's true, Miss. But the Hood DID shut down several as too extreme, or dangerous. So the Mechanic wasn't joking about the scruples bit."

Kayo spun around guiltily, an old man was standing there in the doorway, smiling.

"Remember me, Tanusha. I expect that you do."

"Mr Jones!" Kayo ran up and hugged him. John Jones was the Hood's oldest employee. Jones was – now that the Mechanic was gone – the only person still working for the Hood who had been part of his original gang before he became a crime lord. He was an old friend of the family, having been friends with Kayo's grandfather when they were children, he'd helped to raise Kayo, her father and uncles and cousins. He wasn't as malicious as the others, but still very keen and high-spirited, and often stood in for the Hood while he was away.

Jones chuckled and returned the embrace. "It's been about ten years since I last saw you. How's life being kidnapped?" He laughed out loud.

Kayo laughed too, knowing Jones was only joking. "You know the Tracy's didn't kidnap me. Besides, I like living with them," she retorted in a mock serious tone.

Jones kissed her on the forehead. "That didn't stop me from missing you, and I hope you missed me too," He smiled warmly.

"Not too much," Kayo teased, but really she did like him.

"So, you married one of the Tracy boys yet?" He cocked a cheeky eyebrow.

Kayo turned the same shade as Thunderbird Three. "What? No," she coughed. "I'm not married. I'm not even in love with..." She hesitated for a moment, giving herself away.

"Aha," Jones raised a finger in triumph. But before the conversation could go any further, one of the Hood's minions rushed in.

"Miss Kayo, the Hood's ready to leave... Oh, excuse me," he turned and ran back out.

Kayo and Jones both stifled grins before heading down to the hangar. A few minutes later, the Chaos Cruiser launched with her, the Hood, Havoc, Fuse and half a dozen armed men on board.

* * *

"So, now that we're on our way," Kayo kept her tone casual. "What are we trying to keep out of the Mechanic's hands?"

The Hood tossed a gun and polishing cloth to Kayo, then picked up another. "Basically, we were working on a more advanced version of the Mechas. That's why I think the Mechanic will try for them next, they were only discontinued because they were too self willed for the Mechanic to control, and too many for me to control. They also had more advanced weaponry."

"I see," Kayo nodded. "So, if only the Mechanic can capture some of them, he can take away their self-will and use them to replace most of his other Mechas."

"Exactly."

* * *

 _Half an hour later, over Southern Africa..._

The Chaos Cruiser circled a valley. "This is the place," the Hood confirmed.

"Um mm..." Everyone turned to look at Havoc. "From what you're saying, these Mecha 2.0's are still working? How are they different from the originals? Who were you working with?"

The Hood checked the scanning equipment. "Well, it was Orchard industries. They were trying to make giant plants, but were shut down when it was found I was involved. Before they were shut down, it was discovered that animals that ate the giant plants would grow much bigger as well. So, after they were shut down, I moved them to a cloning facility of mine and got them to enlarge the animals and clones while the Mechanic was to turn them into cybernetic Mechas. That's how they got too intelligent to control."

Everyone turned pale. "Wait," Havoc said. "So, you mean..."

"RED ALERT! RED ALERT! UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS..."

"Put it on the screen," the Hood ordered.

The image that popped up turned Kayo's stomach in knots, the creatures flying towards them looked like Wasp Mechas, but they were twice as big and half actual wasp.

"Taking evasive action," Havoc yelled, trying to swerve out of the way of that deadly looking swarm. Fuse pressed a button and laser bolts streamed from the Cruiser towards the hideous monsters. Detecting that they were under attack, the swarm took a certain formation and beamed energy between each other, forming a force shield that deflected the projectiles aimed at them.

The Hood remotely activated the laser disrupt er, taking out several. Unfortunately, wasps emit chemicals when killed that drive any other wasp to smell it psychotic. And these had been engineered to emit a similar electronic signal as well.

The remaining creatures recklessly flew at high speeds in every direction, firing their own energy bolts at everything that wasn't a Wasp. Of course, there was only the Chaos Cruiser.

Havoc screamed as the ship took hit after hit before several wasps attached to the hull and began _eating_ their way through the hull and windows. Two of them chewed off the engines and the ship began falling.

"OH, NO YOU DON'T!" a worker named Carpenter yelled, pressing a button to electrify the hull. The monsters outside screamed as their jaws got stuck in the, now electrified hull.

"Everyone, strap in and eject," the Hood ordered. "And make sure you've go your weapons."

* * *

The Mechanic watched from a short distance away. This was perfect! The Hood would be killed, and the cybernetic animals distracted while he got inside and uploaded a zombie virus into their systems to take control of them. And no one even knew where this secret base was, except for those about to be killed. This meant he could use this place as a hideout. How could this day get any better?

* * *

"Locals report seeing monsters and other gigantic creatures in this valley. Could these stories be true? Today I'll risk my life to find out."

 **Yes, you and I both know that the Hood betrayed the Mechanic. But Kayo doesn't know that does she.**

 **Cheers.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to Bow Echo, PinkhatKyrano, Peter, Susan, Anne and the other reviewer.**

"WHOA!"

Havoc cried out as she landed on top of a branch, her parachute landing on top of her.

Kayo, who had the only jet-pack, swooped in and picked Havoc up before landing the both of them. "In a bit of a bind, are we?" she teased.

"Get me out of here," Havoc snarled, tangling herself further.

Kayo begrudgingly cut her loose. Meanwhile, the rest of the men had landed safely, except for the Hood. He accidentally dropped into a swamp, but fortunately it was only 3 feet deep. Carefully wading over to the shore, he immediately ordered a head count.

Certain that they were all there, the Hood asked Kayo to climb up the nearest tree. "There should be a building around here."

Kayo skirted up a tree and looked around. There was the structure, a mile or two in the distance. Surrounding it, were several impossibly tall fruit trees. She climbed back down.

"Sir, how many times their regular size do the animals get?" Carpenter asked the Hood.

"You saw how big the wasps were," the Hood reminded him. "Though, some only got two or three times regular size. Kinda' like that one."

Everyone whirled around, weapons at the ready. A horrendous creature was crouching in the grass a few yards away, it was...

A rabbit, about 3 feet long.

"A rabbit?" Fuse cried out in disappointment.

"Well, obviously," the Hood said with as much dignity as possible. "We had to pick a more harmless animal to test the technology on. We couldn't just install straight off the bat."

"But bunnies, Dad?" Havoc backed away in disgust. "I hate bunnies."

"Well," the Hood turned red. " _I_ happen to think that bunnies are real cute." Kayo stifled a grin, remembering that the Hood used to have one as a pet. He had been very upset when it died.

Then, they heard what sounded like a vehicle driving through the jungle towards them. The Hood pulled out a scanner and pointed it towards the source of the sound.

"Now, what suicidal idiot would be driving out here?" He asked himself out loud.

"HEELLLPPPP!" They heard two people cry out. Kayo groaned, she knew those voices. She'd heard them often.

* * *

Buddy and Ellie had driven into the forest, hoping for a good episode but not expecting anything major. Their reputation was in tatters after experts had unanimously declared their 13th season a hoax (it wasn't), and so they had been looking for something more believable when they heard about a spot in Africa where several dozen people had gone missing amidst reports of mysterious gigantic creatures (probably just some exceptionally wild animals).

Buddy and Ellie had been just about to disembark when they had heard rustling in some nearby bushes. "This could be it," Buddy whispered excitedly as Ellie reached for her camera, she wasn't going to miss a nanosecond of this.

Then, a rock flew through the air and shattered the windscreen of their jeep.

"Crikey!" Buddy reached for his tranq gun, wondering if they'd stumbled across a kidnapping ring, or worse, a gang of murderers. Either way, heaven help them if they threatened Ellie.

But the figure that emerged from the bushes was not a kidnapper, or a murderer. In fact, it wasn't even entirely human. It was 9 feet tall, and stood on two hooves, part robot, part human, and part _bull._ Worst of all, it clutched a gigantic double headed axe almost as big as itself.

"Oh, my goodness," Buddy gasped. He addressed the horned monstrosity. "Ok, we didn't know we were on the filming set for the _Chronicles of Narnia_ remake _._ We're leaving now, and don't worry, we're not going to tell anyone about this," he chuckled. "We know you've had to keep filming low-key because of radical secular nuts and -"

With a teeth-rattling bellow, the Minotaur-Machine raised its axe above its head and swung it at them, splitting a large log right next to their vehicle.

"Uh, Buddy," Ellie quivered. _"LEAVING!"_

Buddy put the jeep in top gear and thumped down hard on the accelerator, as the creature raised its axe and swung again, narrowly missing them. It bellowed again, and started chasing them.

There was a path through the jungle, though it was starting to choke with plants. Buddy raced down it, swerving every few seconds to dodge the Minotaur's axe attacks.

They were just starting to shake it, when another one stepped out in front of them, this one taller and holding a gigantic spear.

Buddy screamed, swerving straight off the track and down a hill. Shaving bushes and brushing tree trunks, it was all he could do not to crash. Reaching the bottom, they heard their pursuers crashing down the hill after them.

"Hang on, Ells," Buddy called. He sped up again – and raced by the half-eaten corpse of 60-foot long cybernetic python.

"Ugh," Ellie shivered. "I don't want to know what did that."

Their pursuers appeared behind them and the bigger one hurled its spear at them, though it caught a giant Venus flytrap instead.

"HEELLLPPPP!" They both cried out, then Buddy nearly panicked.

"Love, you're remembering to film this. Aren't you?"

"No worries, Buddy."

* * *

"I don't care who they are," the Hood said to Kayo. "We have to destroy the creatures chasing them." He turned to his men. "Get out of the swamp, you yellow-bellies. There could be cybernetic pythons in there."

 _That_ got them out in a hurry. Fuse, however, hadn't hidden and was already heading towards the thick bushes.

"Come on out and show yourself," he yelled in his loudest, meanest voice. Buddy heard him and quickly turned in his direction, breaking out into the clearing and screeching to a bumpy halt. But not before he busted the jeep's bull bar on Fuse's suit.

"Oh, thank goodness," he panted, jumping out of the vehicle and helping his wife out. "We've been chased nonstop since we've got here and... I say, you aren't going to attack us too, are you?" Buddy stepped between Fuse and Ellie.

"That depends on what you're running from," the Hood announced, stepping forward. The two adventurers started as they recognised him. "What's been chasing you?"

As if in response to his request, the two giant Minotaur's emerged through the jungle and towered over them.

"But Minotaur's don't exist," Havoc cowered in fright.

The Hood scoffed. "Of course they don't. These are the result of genetic experiments. Fire at will, men," He ordered, firing two shots from his elephant gun into the axe-shaft. This caused it to snap, and the axe-head fell onto Buddy's jeep, smashing its engine.

"Bring it on," Fuse whooped. He leapt at the, now weaponless Minotaur and kicked it between its legs while swinging at its face. Unfortunately, it was a girl, and easily batted him away, unaffected.

The others fired machine guns at them, and brought down the female. However, the bullets only bounced harmlessly off of the taller male. With a wail of rage, he drove his spear into the ground, missing the Hood by centimeters. Bending down on one knee, he reached out a massive hand and swatted at them.

Kayo and Havoc, during this, had been setting up a heavy machine gun with armour piercing rounds. Now, they opened fire with it, and with a final defiant bellow, the Minotaur crashed to the ground, dead.

"Perfect," Buddy whispered to Ellie while helping her up. "Now, we have a body to prove the footage. And we didn't have to break any laws to get it."

"Um mm..." Buddy turned to see what Ellie was talking about. She held up the remains of the camera that had been smashed during the encounter. Buddy put his head in his hands.

Kayo was relieved, any footage would have blown her cover. She turned to the Hood. "The facility is in that direction," she pointed from memory. "And we're only a couple of miles away."

"Good," the Hood sighed in relief. "Let's get there. Hopefully, it will be safer."

Buddy frowned, the dark-skinned girl looked familiar from somewhere.

* * *

Five minutes later...

The group had gathered themselves, and were now running as fast as they could in the direction of the buildings that Kayo had seen.

They wouldn't have stopped, but Buddy's prosthetic foot caught in a hole and came off. They all waited impatiently as Ellie helped him put it back on.

"How did that happen, anyway?" Havoc asked to ease her nerves. Ellie looked up.

"We were looking for the Megalodon shark. We found a Great White instead," she poked her husband in the ribs. "I told you to use a diving cage, you idiot," she laughed and rested her head against his chest.

"Hey," Buddy retorted. "Haven't you seen the movies? They can break open diving cages." He looked up and everyone else looked away hurriedly.

Ellie laughed again and looked down, then her eyes went wide with fear. Buddy looked down, and realized what she was staring at.

The hole he had tripped over was a massive footprint.

"What's that?" He asked. The Hood looked over and saw the footprint. He gave a disinterested grunt. "That's just an Ankylosaurus. You know, those armored dinos with the clubs."

Everyone let out a breath, then a 40-foot tall Tyrannosaurus suddenly reached down through the trees and snatched up Carpenter. Another man screamed and the lizard's left eye slid back, a cannon emerged and disintegrated him with a laser bolt.

"Run," the Hood yelled, taking up the lead immediately. Another man opened fire on the beast using the heavy machine gun, but dozens of tiny red bolts flew from between the T-Rex's scales and obliterated the bullets. The T-Rex then attacked him as well.

Everyone else followed the Hood as the dinosaur was distracted with its two kills.

"How are we supposed to defeat that?" Havoc screamed as she caught up with her father.

"We DID have laser guns. But then those dratted wasps shot us down. Oh well, at least they're not chasing us anymore."

A buzzing sound came from above the trees. "Great," Havoc groaned. "Now you've jinxed us."

"Aw, nuts," Fuse muttered. "There's no way for them to get through the tree tops."

"Looks like you didn't design those beasties as well as you thought," Buddy chuckled.

They were now running through a patch of vegetables almost as big as themselves.

"There," Kayo pointed towards a clump of huge tree trunks. "Your building is on the other side of those trees."

They sprinted towards them, only to be cut off by the Wasps, who had finally found a way through and were now landing in front of them. Saws spun on their legs as they buzzed their wings menacingly.

"We're going to be cut to pieces," Ellie wailed. Buddy tried to shield her, but she knocked him down and shielded him instead.

The lead Wasp stepped forward and leapt at Fuse, but suddenly the T-Rex stepped up behind them and grabbed the monstrous insect in its jaws. It had followed them, now with its partner, and apparently decided that these were better.

The worker (that's what female wasps are called) shrieked, and the rest of the wasps swarmed onto the reptile, as its partner rushed to defend him.

A huge death battle then took place. The T-Rex's defenses slaughtered dozens of the insects, while the wasps saws slashed at their scales, slowly weakening them.

The others didn't see this, however. The moment the fight started, they slipped past and raced onwards through the massive tree trunks. They emerged through, and right there a dozen metres away, was the door inside (open).

A sound came from behind, as several Scorpion Mechas surrounded them, herding the group inside. The doors then slid shut. Havoc almost thought she could kiss the drones – _almost-_ but a familiar, scrambled voice boomed from behind.

"I didn't expect to see you alive again. Welcome to my _new_ lair," the Mechanic motioned them to sit down on chairs provided. "Now, if you don't mind. I'd like a moment of your time."

 **I hope you don't mind the Jurassic Park themes. Until next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, and sorry for the late update. When you live in a large family, sometimes you don't get to the computer as much as you'd like. Thanks to the reviewers again. Enjoy.  
**

Fuse sprinted forward and swung at the Mechanic. Unfortunately, the Mechanic's cybernetics were much stronger than Fuse's suit and he easily blocked the hulking young man's attack.

The Mechanic was no less of a hacker than he had been at yesterdays fight, and he quickly had Fuse pinned to the floor by his own suit. Kayo, the Hood and the others were more sensible and sat down quietly on the chairs provided.

Fuse struggled. "Lemme' up will ya.' "

The Mechanic reached down and slapped him across the face. "I've never liked you. You've bent my ear with your psychotic enthusiasm for years, so I'll spare you now if you just SHUT! UP!" He roared.

Fuse quivered and nearly whimpered in rage, his face stinging and his pride too. He loved fighting and shooting and all that manly stuff, and it was almost enough to make him cry that everyone kept trying to stop his fun. And the Mechanic...

Who did that man think he was, making fun of him all the time. Well, Fuse remembered who he was, but the Hood was adamant after what had happened all those years ago that Havoc shouldn't know. With the horrible thought that the Mechanic might try to tell her now, Fuse turned his attention back to the super villain towering over him.

"How long have you been here?" The Hood was demanding.

"I got here just behind you lot. I slipped in while you distracted the 'creatures' out there. Speaking of which, I forgot to thank you. But enough of that, _you're_ at the disadvantage. What did _you_ think you were trying to do out there?"

The Hood frowned. "What do you think? Trying to keep those monsters out of your hands."

"Well, you certainly kept them _off_ my hands," the Mechanic smirked behind his mask.

Buddy cleared his throat and the two crime lords turned to face him. "We weren't doing anything. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, so would you please let us go?"

The Mechanic shook his head. "I won't harm _you two_ , but you still can't leave." He turned and walked over to a bank of computers, pressing a series of buttons and switches, he brought them online.

Proceeding to hook himself up, the Mechanic started making grand gestures and poses as he uploaded the virus that would make those monsters outside his slaves.

Ellie leaned over and whispered to Kayo. "Why does he always do that? Does he work to music or something?"

Kayo stifled a laugh. "No, the suit he wears allows his movements to control computers."

 _Yep,_ Buddy thought. _I've definitely seen her somewhere before. But where?_

"Virus uploaded," the Mechanic gloated. "I have control of one of the creatures, and as it goes about I'll get control of more and more."

The Hood began prying. "So, you're going to use these to replace your Mechas. Correct?"

"Don't be ridiculous," the Mechanic snorted. "I wouldn't trust _those_ monsters. They're going to be to me what I was to you." The Hood stiffened, it would be devastating for their alliance if Kayo found out now about what had really happened in the tunnels under Park moor Scrubs.

Kayo glanced up, and froze. "Um mm..."

The Mechanic turned to her. "I haven't forgotten you, my dear. I'll have the Hood executed once I'm done here, the same goes for Havoc and Fuse. I hope you'll be reasonable and work for me." The Mechanic smirked, remembering that the Hood had altered records after the incident to list her as simply one of his students. "The rest," he inclined his head. "Will simply be prisoners until I bore of them."

Kayo returned her gaze to the Mechanic. "I'm sorry, were you saying something?"

"I beg your pardon." The Mechanic looked up to see what...

A huge spider was crawling across a giant web on the ceiling. Well, that explained all the scattered remnants of cobwebbed machinery lying about. He had taken all the spare parts with him when they left.

He scanned it, his heart sinking when he realized it was completely spider. There was simply no way his virus could even touch that. He turned to one of the Scorpions.

 _You and your drones destroy that creepy crawly. NOW!_ He thought/directed.

The Mecha responded obediently, and promptly fired at the creature, blowing one of its legs off.

It let out a wail so terrible it give Kayo nightmares for weeks afterwards, and shot webs out from its legs into the roof. Stopping its fall shortly above the floor, it flipped over and dropped the rest of the way, crushing several Scorpion Mechas under its feet.

With their guards and captor distracted, Kayo, the Hood and friends jumped out of the way and looked around for an exit. "There," she pointed. They raced through the indicated doors – and found themselves faced with several gigantic lizards (cybernetic).

"Are those controlled by the Mechanic?" Ellie asked.

"Yes," one of the lizards stated. They started growling and bobbing their heads.

"What's that for?" Kayo asked. Buddy fielded the question.

"They only do that when they're about to eat."

* * *

Wasp Mechas swarmed over the massive tarantula. Rolling over, it rendered several of them useless, suffering cuts and burns to its body. The freak of a spider shook the rest of the drones off, then jumped at the Mechanic. The Mechanic quickly ducked and rolled away.

The spider was smart, and grabbing the Mechanic's cables, it yanked them upwards. The Mechanic, however, was smart too, and disconnected them a split-second before they went taut.

This meant that the tarantula yanked upwards too hard. Overbalancing, it flailed before falling onto its back. The Mechanic gathered himself as his Mechas reassembled and prepared to attack.

* * *

The lizards advanced.

The Hood raised a blaster (he had snatched it from a crushed Scorpion Mecha), and fired, blowing the heads off one of the reptiles. Another reared its head back and spat _a tooth_ at him, the serrated metal projectile nearly cutting off his arm.

"Here," Kayo slipped through a side door and motioned for them to follow. The others didn't need to be told twice, firing their weapons to slow their adversaries down, they followed her down a corridor before locking themselves in another room.

"Phew," Kayo sighed in relief. As they ran, she'd grabbed her father's injured arm and now applied pressure as she worked on bandaging the wound. It was dark, but she could do it blindfolded.

She mentally counted how many of them there should be. Her and her uncle, Havoc, Fuse, Buddy, Ellie, and the three minions. That came up to nine.

"Everyone still here?" She enquired into the darkness. Seven affirmatives came back, one was missing.

"Did we just leave Fuse back with the Mechanic and that nightmare?"

* * *

Fuse had control of his suit back, due to his ex-captor being distracted. Speaking of which...

Tarantulas are so big that they can't cling to walls. In order not to fall, tarantulas shoot out tiny strands of web from their legs that connect to the surfaces they're climbing on, this securely anchoring them.

As the Mechanic and the Mechas charged at the now upside-down beast, it fired its webs at the Mechs. In seconds, they were all immobilized, struggling unsuccessfully at their bonds (webs are actually width-for-width stronger than steel, only being more flexible, all the worse for prey).

Using its cobwebby lines as leverage, the spider flipped itself right way up, sending the Mechanic flying.

"ALL RIGGHHHTT." Fuse roared. Finally, something he could kill. The tarantula turned and crawled at him, the unshy Fuse meeting it _head-on._ Fuse reached out and grabbed its head, while it pinned him between its forelegs. Both hissed and surged against each other.

"Who aah! You're a lot stronger than you look there, Hulk," Fuse snarled, digging the spikes on his boot soles into the ground to grip.

The Mechanic rotated his forelegs and arms, propelling himself forward in a massively powerful leap next to the boy he once... never mind.

Dropping to avoid one of the beasts legs, the Mechanic spotted a particularly deep gash in the tarantula's underneath. Stepping forward, and combining his strength with Fuse's, they pinned its head down. Reaching out a robotic hand, the Mechanic promptly snapped off one of its fangs. Then, releasing its head, he slid under the spider and stabbed.

10 seconds later, and they were the worst in the Mechanic's life, the monstrosity-that-had-no-right-to-call-itself-a-spider was dead.

Fuse pushed it off the Mechanic, and was about to crack the Mechanic's skull, when he was tranquilized for his troubles.

Summoning the cyborg animals, he had them free the Mechs, strip Fuse of his suit, and use some of the webs to bind him. Deciding that this base was too dangerous, he tiredly began preparations to evacuate.

* * *

"Don't try and stop me," Havoc wailed as her father and cousin pinned her down. "We have to go find him."

"Not by being as brash as he is," the Hood reprimanded.

Havoc calmed a little, sniffling. The Hood spoke to Kayo. "Go and do a reconnaissance. I'll stay here with Havoc."

One of the Hood's minions piped up in the darkness. "Uh, Franklin. Is that you?"

"Is what me, Alice?" The person in question queried.

"Ouch!" Alice cried out. "OK, not you. Something just bit me in the leg." Kayo didn't bother opening the door, she kicked it straight down. The whole group raced out and away in no particular direction.

They didn't see the little puppy emerge into the corridor behind them, then go back inside to annoy its sleeping parents instead.

A couple of chases, booby traps and near misses later, the group found an old boat and steered it out into the river, just in time to see the Mechanic fly off with several other aircraft carrying his new slaves. And Fuse.

Even more disturbingly, they weren't harassed as they escaped down the river. The Mechanic had taken more than they'd realized. He had triumphed.

"This time. This time."

The Hood had an idea what project his enemy would try for next.

 **Hope it was worth the wait.**

 **Sorry to leave out the details of their end trip through the base. But I had to cut it short or I was never going to finish.**

 **Ciao for now.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks to Bow Echo, Peter, Susan, Anna and tuupang for reviewing. For all those wondering, this project will not be as scary as the last one. Though, it is more dangerous.  
**

 **Voila (sweeping hand gesture)  
**

 _Back in the Sahara..._

Kayo and the Hood were trying to console Havoc, but she was not to be comforted. She was very fond of her brother, and without him keeping her on her toes she felt lost.

"The Mechanic's will probably kill him," she sobbed into her father's arms. "We'll probably never see him again. I need him back, Dad."

The Hood stroked her hair. "Now, now dear. All we have to do is catch the Mechanic at his next stunt. If we catch him quickly enough, he won't have the time to kill Fuse." _I hope,_ he thought.

But Havoc simply wanted to cry at the moment, so Kayo excused herself to take a look back in the blueprints room.

The Hood comforted his daughter until she fell asleep.

He now knew what the Mechanic was up to.

First the batteries for Sentinel, then harvesting gigawatts of power from the satellites, then the Mecha 2.0's.

The Mechanic wasn't randomly reviving projects, he was working the stages of a plan from the Global Conflict of 2040.

One that the Hood and the Mechanic had designed with a colleague named Lucy, who had stolen one particular stage and (or so she thought) destroyed the rest.

Next would be either the A.I. Or ...

* * *

Colonel Casey sat in her office, staring incredulously at the pair in front of her.

"So, let me get this straight," she addressed Buddy. "After entering the valley, you were attacked by half-robotic Minotaurs possessing Medieval weapons?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And then you were chased through the forest in your jeep. Upon which you stumbled across the Hood, who then killed what were apparently his own creations to save you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Buddy squirmed. "From what we heard, it seems that the Hood had abandoned the creatures for some reason and had returned to destroy them."

"Of course, of course," Casey acted excited. "He brought half-a-dozen men with him to destroy those monsters."

"Actually, Colonel," Ellie corrected. "He had brought a lot of heavy weaponry, but it seems that they crashed on arrival and lost most of it. And besides, we were winning until we came to that building and got attacked by the Mechanic."

"I was just getting to that," Casey continued. "The Hood's ragtag group with their best weaponry destroyed still defeated all those swarming hordes of half organic weapons systems before surrendering at the sight of the Mechanic's toys."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And then, you were saved by a giant spider."

"The Mechanic attacked it, ma'am."

"And then, of course, in your hurry to get away, you forget about a rather large young man in a bright purple suit."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And finally, you found a boat and sailed off into the sunset. While the Mechanic gets these Mecha 2.0's and gets the guy, too."

"It was actually noon, ma'am. But yes."

Casey nodded, her chin resting on her hands and a smile on her face.

Buddy frowned. "You don't believe us, do you?"

Casey's smile grew bigger, as she shook her head.

"But it's true, Colonel," Ellie leapt to her feet in exasperation. "We had it all filmed, but it got destroyed."

"I knew there was something I'd forgotten. How convenient."

Ellie produced a series of sketches. "I drew these based on the people the Hood had with him, and of all the creatures we encountered too. I even coloured in the details. You HAVE to believe us."

Casey took it disinterestedly, and handed it to her secretary. "Run them through the system, see if you can identify any of the people," she then turned back to Buddy and Ellie. "Thank you for your story. You made my day, it's the funniest thing I've heard since they proposed enforced nudity. Now, if you don't mind, I have to get back to work. Good day to you." Before Buddy and Ellie could argue any further, two guards walked in and escorted them out.

* * *

Howard Yost was sitting down to dinner with his family, when his cell phone rung.

His wife looked annoyed. "I told you no phones at the table," she reprimanded. "The children are starting to pick up bad habits." She reached over and snatched an iPod off one of their daughters laps.

"Wives," Howard muttered good naturedly before answering the phone. "This is Howard Yost, who is it?"

"I've decided to bring our meeting forward," the Mechanic answered.

Howard grew agitated. "I'm too busy at the moment. That's why I scheduled it for next week."

"I'm only in the basement."

Howard's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "You WHAT!?" His wife looked over and frowned. He calmed down a little. "OK, don't touch anything, I'm coming." He hung up and looked apologetic. "Sorry, that was the office. A bit of a screw-up."

His wife deflated. "Another one, Howard. You're office is always having 'emergencies', and at the strangest times too. Just last week it was, you got a call apparently so urgent you rushed straight out of the shower and were halfway to the door before you realized..." She turned to the children who had started to giggle and fixed them with a stern glare. She turned back to her husband but he had already slipped out.

"I'm going to have to be very cross with him one of these days," she muttered to herself.

* * *

Howard ran down to the basement and flung open the door. The Mechanic then appeared out of nowhere from behind him. Shoving Howard through the door, he stepped through and locked it.

"You're easily fooled when frightened," he taunted.

Howard gathered himself. "Enough of that. Now,what do you want?"

"What do I want?" The Mechanic growled. "I want to know why you're shutting down Stage 4 of our plan?"

"It's too expensive," Howard countered. "I had to cut serious corners to fund it. And as a result I no longer own the tallest building in the world, I own _the second- tallest building in the world_."

"But I've already built Stage 4." The Mechanic pointed out.

"Yeah, well that's just building it. You lost half the energy you stole from the satellites."

"I don't need energy for the nanites, I need computing power. The energy was for future stages, remember."

"I needed to sell some of the energy to raise funds for the rocket fuel." Howard countered. "Do you have any idea how much that will cost?"

"I CALCULATED ALL THAT FOR YOU!" The Mechanic roared, and Howard was very glad the basement was sound-proof. "And you have more than enough money to do it. If you stop wasting all your money on those skyscrapers of yours."

Howard flew into a rage. "How dare you tell me what to do. I'm your boss. I intend to rebuild my tower, I intend to do it properly, and I'm going to have to sell the stages to get the money to do that. So, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, MECHANIC. Our deal was that I decided what to use them for, and this is it."

The Mechanic shook his head. "Oh, no, no, no, no," He reached out and clapped a robotic hand around Howard's throat to pull him closer. " _You_ are going to transfer all your money to me. I can control the stages, and with your money I will have the power to complete them myself. Then, once Operation Thunderbird is _fully_ implemented I can do what I want, to whom I want, whenever I want to."

"You're crazy," Howard choked out. He felt the Mechanic's grip tighten.

"As you wish," a cracking sound came from Howard's neck. The Mechanic dropped him, pulled out an electronic tablet from his chest, and after a few taps to the screen, pressed Howard's finger to the screen. Seconds later, all of his financial empire was under the Mechanic's control.

Unlocking the basement door, the Mechanic left the house quickly and quietly. Two Wasp Mechas carried him back to his ship, where he reviewed the stages once again.

Contacting the Mecha 2.0's, the Mechanic directed them to attack the fuel dumps that he had designated. He also ordered his regular Mechas to start loading the nanites into the rockets in preparation.

The Hood had nearly quit Operation Thunderbird when the Mechanic had proposed this stage, and now despite his interference it was about to become reality.

The Mechanic smiled to himself, in your face Hood.

* * *

Colonel Casey reviewed the results of the identity search. She picked up her phone.

"Issue an interrogation warrant for Buddy and Ellie Pendergast, and get me International Rescue." Casey was shocked, Kayo was definitely _not_ working for the Hood. She needed to know what Buddy and Ellie were really up to, and she needed to contact Scott in case there was some reasonable explanation for all of this.

 **For those who haven't seen it, Howard Yost is the owner of the skyscraper in the unaired episode 'Inferno'.**

 **Hope you're all hooked, TS**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks again to all my readers.**

 _On Tracy Island..._

Scott Tracy was tired, he'd just arrived back from an exceptionally long rescue, and could barely stay awake for the debriefing.

"Earth calling Scott Tracy."

"Huh? What?" Ok, more tired than he realized. "Sorry, Grandma. Where were we?"

EOS giggled. "The debrief is over. You fell asleep halfway through, but the others didn't notice until just now."

"And," Virgil cleared his throat. "That was me, not Grandma. She's in the kitchen."

"Don't embarrass him any further," Gordon teased.

"He didn't," EOS observed. "The Boss is asleep again."

* * *

Scott woke up several hours later, in bed. Realizing what had happened, he got up and wandered down to the lounge. His brothers were out in the pool, so Scott returned to his room.

Scott didn't often have time on his hands, his job was quite hectic after all. So, after preparing a hot bath and slipping into it, he relaxed and reflected on recent events.

So much had changed recently. No one had quite realized just how dangerous the Mechanic was until he nearly killed his former employer (and Kayo too, he'd shot down Shadow when she tried to retrieve the batteries from him at the Grand Sequoia).

It was amazing, Scott thought, what one could be talked into doing when you were desperate. He had certainly never dreamed of forming an alliance with his fathers probable killer, but here they were (mind you, Scott intended answers out of him at some point).

And Kayo...

She really _hadn't_ wanted to work with her biological family, not that he could blame her. However, it was one of the Hood's conditions, and if he was stupid enough to trust his niece then Scott would willingly oblige...

Of course, Kayo would argue, she always liked to play the devil's advocate with him. He was convinced she had eyes on his position. But this had _really_ ticked her off.

It hardly surprised him, he was actually glad the idea was so hateful to her, but then she had shocked him. Just as he was winning the argument, _Kayo, what choice do we have?_ Had been his exact words, she'd broken down crying (fortunately, the others weren't around).

Kayo. Never. Cried.

It had rattled Scott to his core, he had immediately taken her in his arms, and then she got confusing.

As she was sobbing, she actually _begged_ him not to send her, saying she couldn't forgive the Hood for what he did, she couldn't be near him and pretend to like it, how she would abhor herself for breaking another promise to her father.

He had actually been about to relent, prepared to apologize even, when she'd realized what she was doing, and where she was. Getting up, she'd gathered herself with a resolve Scott had never realized was there before, and said just try and stop her from going. And Scott had been so stunned he'd just let her.

Scott now regretted not trying, she shouldn't feel emotionally pressured to do it just because of him. They had spoken briefly just before she left, but all she said was to ask him not to tell the others about her outburst. Scott had at least agreed to that, if the others found out, they'd probably fly straight over and try and drag it out of her, not what she needed at the moment.

He wasn't sure himself why he had told the others that she had quit, a holiday would've sufficed, and Scott hated seeing the others suffer for his lie.

Maybe he should tell the others she really hadn't quit. It would be hell on earth, but he would feel better. He should also probably try and contact Kayo too, he hated the thought of her being so vulnerable, he would do anything to take the weight off her shoulders that he'd caught the briefest glimpse of. Anything at all, to genuinely make her smile.

Scott sat up. Yes, that was what he would do, Grandma and Brains first, then the others, then apologize to John for forcing his hand, then...

His wrist comm started beeping (it was right next to the bath). He checked the caller, it was EOS. _Strange,_ he thought. _Why isn't John calling._ He accepted it.

"Hello boss, you might want to put some clothes on, Colonel Casey is calling, she says it's pretty urgent and that she'll only talk to you or Kayo," she said sounding flustered. Scott understood, Casey could be quite rude at times.

"Thanks, but why isn't John forwarding the call, is he that upset with me," Scott jumped out of the bath and grabbed a towel.

"Um mm..." EOS hesitated. "It's not that. He... can't come to the comms right now."

Ok, that was pretty strange.

"If you're just going to stand there boss, I can manipulate your avatar to _appear_ dressed," Scott could hear the smirk in her voice.

"Select sound only," he ordered with a smile and a shake of the head. "You know John doesn't approve of you and holograms."

"He's no fun, father of mine or not," EOS huffed, before connecting Casey through.

"Good day to you, Colonel," Scott greeted while throwing clothes on hurriedly. "How may I help you."

"I'll be brief and to the point Scott," the older woman replied. "I need to talk to Kayo."

"She's not available at the moment," Scott explained. "I can connect you to Penelope if you need covert ops."

"I don't need covert ops, I need to know why Kayo isn't available."

Scott frowned, this was starting to sound like some form of personal news. At any rate, Casey couldn't know what Kayo was _really_ up to, her network wasn't secure enough. "Well, actually, she quit about 2 weeks ago. Don't ask me why. is this information really for her ears only?"

"You didn't tell us she'd _quit._ "

"Of course not. You would've tried to recruit her. Kayo knows everything about our systems that _you_ _can't_ know."

Casey started to turn purple, then calmed down. "Do you know where she is?" She spoke in a strained voice.

"No," that, at least, was the truth.

"Well," A hint of worry crept into the Colonel's tone. "I've got two people here swearing up and down that they saw her with the Hood."

 _Oh, *****_

"Now, make no mistake. I don't believe them, and the way they're rambling on I intend to lock them up. But, from what you say, I'll have to set my agents out looking for her. I advise you to do the same."

Scott paled. "And who are these two?"

"Would you believe, Buddy and Ellie Pendergast?"

"..."

"They claim that they got caught in a cross fight between the Mechanic and aforementioned criminal over some Six Million Dollar Animals, if you get my drift."

"I don't know what that means, and I don't think I want to. But, Colonel, I don't think you need to worry," Scott said, thinking quicker than he had in ages. "Kayo told us she had a twin sister, it was probably her they saw."

"Oh," Casey was taken aback. "Alright then, I'll have to give the Pendergasts the benefit of the doubt and release them I guess. I'll still be investigating this of course. Ha, ha, and don't think I won't try and recruit her, I will."

"Not good. I hope you catch him."

"Casey out." Scott let out a huge breath and collapsed onto the bed. Rain Check on telling the others just yet, no need to worry them with these developments just yet.

"Well done, boss," EOS congratulated. "I didn't know you had it in you."

"Thanks EOS. Can you open a link to the Hood, I need to warn Kayo to watch her back."

"Certainly."

"And EOS, can John come to the comms yet? I need him to track the GDF's movements."

"Yes boss, John can come to the comms now."

"Ok, good."

"Captain O'Bannon is just leaving," she snickered as the Hood answered her call. Scott sat bolt upright but John's AI was quicker and her hologram flickered out.

 _How dare he?_ Scott fumed. _He has no business entertaining women in Thunderbird 5 on active duty._

"You look worried," the Hood commented. Scott snapped out of his thoughts.

"Oh, hello Hood. I need you to put Kayo on the line, I have some bad news for her."

* * *

"COMMENCING LAUNCH IN 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." several dozen of the Mechanic's rockets launched, carrying each of their payloads of trillions of nanites into space.

Several minutes after launch, the rockets cleared the atmosphere. Detaching their loads, the tiny capsules carrying them maneuvered towards the destinations designated by the Mechanic.

Morphing into powerful magnets, hundreds of tons of space junk and debris began floating towards them (along with the satellites).

The nanites had their work cut out for them.

 **Sorry, not much action in this chapter. The Scott dialogue turned out a lot longer than I originally thought. Hope it adds to the story.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello all, a bit more action in this chapter. Thanks to all my supporters, and I won't keep you distracted any further...**

Kayo walked into her uncle's office.

"Ah, Kayo. I was just about to call you," The Hood remarked. He was on the comms to...

"What do _you_ want?" She hissed as she stalked over to Scott's hologram. The Hood raised his eyebrows and wisely left the room

"Kayo, you're cover was very nearly blown," Scott stated bluntly.

"What?"

"The Pendergast's reported their encounter with the Hood and the Mechanic, and apparently identified you to Colonel Casey," Scott explained.

Kayo face palmed. "I'm an idiot," she muttered.

Scott was quick to reassure her. "Don't worry, I convinced her it wasn't you, but she's still on the lookout for your twin. So just stay out of sight (or in disguise) and you'll be alright."

"My twin! You didn't implicate _her_ in this, did you?" Kayo asked incredulously.

Scott spluttered. " _WHAT?"_ Kayo realized too late her error.

"Um, OK, calm down. Yes, I have a twin. However, my parents were different colours, and so were we. You probably led Casey to believe I had an identical twin, which I don't."

Scott turned red as he considered this new piece of information. Actually, the bit about her parents made sense, she was black and her uncle was white.

But still...

"You didn't tell us!?" He gritted his teeth.

"Oh, come on Scott," she snapped, shocking him. "I'm not going to jeopardize her career for your sensitivities. She isn't working for my uncle, and I'm not going to let her relation to the Hood stain her life like it has mine."

Scott's temper dropped a notch, and he remembered the other part of the reason he was calling. "Oh, come on. You know that's not true."

"But it is," Kayo's temper rarely showed, but it was a terrible thing when it did. " _I_ was the natural choice to you to work for the Hood, BECAUSE I'm related to him. And of course, I _had_ to go because the Hood insisted, BECAUSE I'm related to him. Then, you guys always try to convince me that I shouldn't consider him my family, because you _know that he is_..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Kayo," Scott felt as if his heart had just been ripped out. He had to admit that she wasn't wrong. "I... I... You never told us..."

"Oh, come on. I really have to tell you when your acting like a****" Kayo yelled. "You're not even going to apologize to me. You're just making excuses, now."

Scott opened his mouth to apologize.

"Shut up," She screamed, cutting the comms and storming out of the room. She briefly wondered what Scott would say to her about that, but was more wishing she hadn't said anything. Now, when she got back, they would be all over her, trying to apologize, and only because she had told them.

But at the moment she had more important things to think about.

* * *

There had been numerous reports of unauthorized space launches all over the world in just the past few hours, and the Hood was convinced the Mechanic was putting Stage 4 into operation. After briefing them on its purpose, everyone went as fast as they could to prepare for launch.

Down in the hangar, the Hub ship had been rebuilt. It was rather a slapdash job, and it wasn't as good with Jones in charge of engineering instead of the Mechanic, but it was more or less suitable to their purposes.

The engines charged to life while the ceiling of the base opened up, the pilots took their seats and the gigantic aircraft rose into the air.

"Get us into space," The Hood ordered. "From there, we should be able to track the Mechanic's rockets."

* * *

Clump by clump, tonnes of space junk came together, the nanotechnology crawling all over them, melding them together, reshaping them.

Close to geostationary orbit, larger defunct satellites were joined together in long lines. Reconfigured and charged by the nanites, they began to absorb radiation from the Van Allen Belts and convert it to electricity.

Lower down, anything that moved was being grafted into one of several dozen gigantic generators taking shape. Once the radiation-absorbents came and transferred all that radioactive power to them, they could serve out their diabolical purposes with perfect impunity.

* * *

The Mechanic tapped his fingers together, the movement keeping the entire operation in order. It was tiresome using his body and mind to run everything, but years of practice meant he was quite used to the drain.

He was not a patient man, though he had to admit. The 20 year delay in his original plans meant that the technology was a lot more reliable now, but he could only dream wistfully of what tech he would've owned if things hadn't been shelved.

The Hood had let everything go to ruin after Lucy stole the final stage, it wasn't the only option, but he had become obsessed with re obtaining it.

The Hood was morally predictable as far as the Mechanic was concerned, he wanted to use Operation Thunderbird for global domination, but he wasn't 'a savage', he intended to use the stages to cause short term terror, to be solved by the final (stolen) stage, to make the public go crying to him like sheep.

There were alternative stages, but the Hood had shut many of these down. Why? Not _actually_ because of his conscience, but he wanted the population itself as undamaged as possible. The Mechanic didn't think like that, he wanted all the stages used to distract everyone, then take over and beat the populace into submission. The Mechanic hated the illusions of being a hero that the Hood needed, he dealt in reality. If anyone didn't like that, they didn't have to... _live_ with it.

A fair arrangement, in his mind, though he hoped that certain people would help him willingly. Particularly Kayo, he hoped that she might sympathize with him against the Hood, after...

 _Ok, don't go there._

* * *

Kayo had learned when she was a kid that going to your room and crying alone didn't work, so she didn't. Steeling herself carefully, Kayo headed for the control room of the Sahara base where Jones was viewing the Hood and Havoc's progress.

"You've reached outer space, sir," Jones quipped keenly.

"I can confirm that if you want," Havoc snidely retorted.

Proceeding to hack all satellites with scanners and video feeds, and then comparing them with the international space control, the Hood soon had the trajectories and probable destinations of the rockets.

"Perfect," he crowed. "Nearest one is just a few hundred miles from here. Gun it Havoc."

"Aye, Dad," Havoc hesitated. "The Mechanic will be operating this stage remotely, right?"

"Yes."

"So couldn't we track the remote signal to his location?"

"An excellent idea," Kayo nodded. "Though that has failed in the past."

"Couldn't we at least try?" Havoc nearly pleaded. Everyone knew what she was thinking. If they could find the Mechanic, they might find Fuse.

Kayo sighed and gave in. "Well, I suppose we have to try. It'll mean at least one more of his hiding places gone." She stepped up to one of the computers and began typing a flurry of commands.

The Mechanic was clever, he had several fake signal emitters, and they were all bouncing around on repeaters along with whichever was the real signal. Kayo nearly developed a migraine trying to track them all.

After a few minutes, she had all the locations. Passing them along to the Hood's field agents, she started trying to figure out which was actually the Mechanic's.

Jones shook his head from another computer he was standing by. "You'll never find it that way, deary. The reason this failed before and will fail now is because they're ALL fakes."

Kayo turned to him. "That's not possible."

"Yes, it is," the old man corrected her. "The Mechanic himself only uses quantum messaging. It's impossible to track quantum messaging, and you can't even bug it without the original sender knowing. What you want to do, darling, is to locate where the rockets came from, and find which pad _hasn't_ got a signal." He pulled up a satellite photograph of an old spaceport on the computer. "Already done it for you."

Kayo stepped over and kissed him fondly on the cheek. "I ought to marry you for your skills, you know."

Jones laughed. "What about your Tracy boy?"

Kayo stiffened, partly in jest. "Did you have to remind me of him?" She replied, then returned to business. "We'd better get out there." Glancing at the location given, she and Jones raced to the Chaos Cruiser, picking up a platoon of the Hood's soldiers on the way.

Several minutes later, they were on their way.

* * *

The Hub ship maneuvered over to the calculated position of one of the nanite loads.

"Sir, the nanites have just completed construction of the shield generators," one of the Hood's minions reported.

"A bit quicker than I thought they'd be," the world's most wanted remarked. Then, the ship's radar started pinging.

"Sir, there's something big headed our way."

"W ha-" All of a sudden, one of the miles long radiation-absorbents filled their view. Docking with the gigantic generator, it transferred gigawatts of radiation-converted-to-electricity into it.

Charged with a sudden surge of power, the generator's thrusters fired, sending it hurtling down towards Earth, its shield already powering up.

"After it," the Hood yelled. Then, with a screeching _THUNK_ , the absorb er (still with most of its charge) suddenly rammed into them, sending them both hurtling after the generator, albeit in a slower fall.

Mass-coordinated together, the shield generators reached the upper atmosphere, where they performed their true wicked potential. As they fell down, the shields protected them from burning up, scattering hot plasma across the mesosphere instead of letting it build up and then dissipate in front of them.

The mesosphere, you see, is the most turbulent of the layers of the Earth's atmosphere, it has supersonic atmospheric tides of up to 500 to 800 miles per hour. The generator's were purposely heading towards these tides, and that was where they got sneaky.

The scattered plasma got caught up and entwined into the tides, then the now electrified currents got hit straight on with the plummeting shields.

The supersonic winds were being deflected towards the Earth's surface.

* * *

Spinning around in their now coming apart ship, Havoc hit the comms.

"Calling International Rescue, come in International Rescue."

 **I can't remember if the figure for the winds in the mesosphere was supposed to be kilometres or miles, so I picked miles for dramatic effect.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to Bow Echo, Susan, Anne and Peter.**

 _On Tracy Island..._

Grandma Tracy had just finished cooking in the kitchen, and was on the hunt for a taste tester. She was rather proud of her new cake recipe: turmeric spices and besan flour topped with spinach. She was sure that _no one_ had thought of that before.

Gordon was in the pool, so wouldn't hear her. Or at least, he would pretend not to, and Sally wasn't in the mood to frighten him out. Alan was suntanning on the deck.

"Hey, Alan," she called out as she approached. Alan looked up.

"You look unusually cheerful, Grandma. What's up?" He asked.

"I've just completed a new and previously unheard of cake recipe, and I need to make sure it tastes just right before..." At the word 'new' Alan jumped up and tried to run, and at the word 'before' Sally caught up to him.

"The kitchen is that way," she smirked. "Glad to know you're so enthusiastic though." Alan sighed, and resigned himself to his fate, one time Scott had outright told her she was a bad cook... It hadn't gone well, enough said.

Miraculously, or so Alan thought, the emergency alarm rung at that moment.

"Sorry Grandma, gotta go."

As they headed for the lounge, Sally thought she saw something like a small meteorite high up in the sky.

* * *

 _Flying towards an obscure spaceport in the U.S.A..._

"We're just arriving," Jones reported. "Now, Kayo. Remember to land us in one piece this time."

Suddenly, all their systems blacked out.

"Is this supposed to be happening?" One of the Hood's soldiers called from the back.

Kayo fiddled with the controls. "We've been hit with some sort of EMP. We're free falling towards the base. Lieutenant Daniels, unlock the RF ID sleeve."

"Aye, ma'am." Daniels opened the EM proof casing and pulled out several magnetic repulsors. It was a brand new defense system they'd thought of, using the magnets to cushion their landing. It also meant that the Mechanic wouldn't realize what they were doing until it was too late to stop them.

Attaching them to their designated spots, the men positioned themselves and waited for Kayo's command. Carefully straightening out the Chaos Cruiser, Kayo glided the ship down as slowly as possible.

* * *

"So that's the rundown," John concluded. "The Hood and the Chaos Crew are on a crash course with Earth. Meanwhile, the Mechanic's radioactive satellites need to be stopped from reaching the atmosphere, and these supersonic atmospheric tides can't get down to the surface."

Scott leapt to his feet. "Alan, take Thunderbird Three and meet up with John with the exosuit and pod next to the Hub ship. After rescuing them, deal with the satellites. Virgil, Gordon and I will..."

"Do we have to rescue the Hood?" Alan whined. "You really can't blame the Mechanic for trying to kill him, you know. He'll only cause more trouble if we rescue him."

Scott exhaled in frustration and scratched the back of his head. It was looking as if he was going to have to let his family into the loop after all.

The Hood and Havoc had been listening to the conversation, and now Havoc joined in. "Well, if not for us, surely you want to rescue your sister?" The Hood looked confused at his daughter for a moment, then realized her cunning.

"What?" Virgil cried out. "When did you get your hands on her?"

Now the Hood was doubly confused. "You mean... you don't know?"

"Answer his question," Sally ordered.

Scott coughed. "For the past few weeks. International Rescue has been in a secret alliance with the Hood."

* * *

1,000 feet,

800,

600,

400,

200,

100.

"Activate repulsors," Kayo ordered. The soldiers complied, the Cruiser coming to a halt just feet above the tarmac next to the main complex.

Carefully lowering it down, everyone jumped up and grabbed their weapons, filing out of the craft behind the Lieutenant.

"There, we landed in one piece," Kayo boasted. Alarms blared, while Mechas and workers scuttled into the buildings.

"Quickly. Inside," Daniels yelled. "We mustn't get caught in the open."

The Mechanic's voice abruptly thundered over the loudspeakers. "You'll come to no harm, if I'm left alone."

The troop reached the doors and Daniels kicked them in. Then they immediately dived out of the way, dodging bolts from the Scorpion Mecha 2.0s. Scrambling back up, the Hood's men quickly gunned them down before they could recover.

"I told you to stay away," the Mechanic growled, directing his drones to take over the Chaos Cruiser.

Kayo pulled up a holographic schematic of the base on her tablet and presented it to Daniels as their soldiers covered the corridors.

"Right," he examined the map. "I'll take ten men and attack the assembly hangar. Miss Kyrano, you take another ten and head for the control room, chances are that's where he'll be. And Mr Jones, you take the last ten and just secure the place in general. Any questions?"

"No, sir," a Sergeant Close spoke up. "But I just heard something through those ducts." Everyone turned as a cybernetic gorilla (twice its normal size) burst up through the floor and roared.

"We're under attack by King Louie, Don't panic!" Jones yelled. "Pour in the old lead, my lads." Needing no further persuasion, Kayo and Daniels took their separate sections and headed to their designated targets as Jones' section opened fire.

* * *

 _In an equipment room along the way..._

Several of the Mechanic's workers took up position on the roofs of assorted vehicles, on catwalks crisscrossing overhead, and in side doorways. As Kayo entered the room through the only unoccupied doorway, they opened fire at her, forcing her to dive under the nearest jeep. Kayo was annoyed, the spray of bullets hadn't needed to take off her ponytail, after all.

One of the goons started firing grenades through the door she'd just exited to prevent her team getting in while the rest kept up a constant withering fire on her. Kayo noticed smoke rising from a nearby car.

Another thug came up with a second grenade launcher, and aimed it at the jeep Kayo was under. But just as he was about to pull the trigger, Kayo's troop came through the doors behind the men on the catwalk and gunned them down (Kayo had been a distraction, they'd spotted the ambush using infrared).

Close's section positioned themselves on the catwalks and proceeded to open fire on their enemies below, who were quite taken aback. Some retaliated and shifted hiding spots, but most were shot trying to escape.

Close saw them running. "Fire on their escape routes," he ordered. Then he feigned being hit and rolled down the stairs he'd been crouching next to. Upon reaching the bottom he jumped up and into a missile launcher truck. Activating its targeting computers, he turned the missiles towards the hostile end of the room and pressed the 'launch' button.

Striking a fuel tanker, the missiles exploded, sending shrapnel across the room, and setting the rest of the vehicles ablaze in a chain reaction, incinerating the remainder of the Mechanic's men.

Close jumped out of the truck and into a hallway just in time to dodge the blast, then came back in as the foam sprinklers turned on and doused most of the flames.

"Any casualties," he called up to the others.

"Just one, Sarge."

"Good. Keep heading to the target, you know the plan," Close commanded. Then he threaded his way through the wrecked and smouldering machinery as Kayo joined him. Together, they headed towards the control room in a different direction, aiming to surround the Mechanic.

* * *

John was worried, he'd seen his family distressed and upset before, but never in an angry sort of way.

"Unbelievable," his Grandma started to say. John decided to interrupt right there.

"Guys, this isn't the time. We need to launch," he reasoned. He didn't remark on the looks they shot him.

"Right," Scott raced over to the panel to take him down to 1. "Everyone to your ships."

"Oh, no you don't. I'm taking charge until we feel we can trust you again, if ever," Virgil growled. "And after Alan and John rescue the Hood, Alan will be taking over 5. Now, everyone to your ships. Thunder birds are go." Scott was miffed, but they didn't have time to argue, so he and John decided to let it go, _for now._

Sally turned to Lady Penelope and Parker. "John, what should they be doing?"

"I expect they'll be tracking the Hood after he's rescued," John considered, his exosuit being assembled around him. "Then they can help Kayo oversee his operations. Maybe Kayo will even be able to come back, and Penelope and Parker will do the field work."

"Now you're talking," Parker cracked his knuckles, causing Penny and Grandma Tracy to shudder.

* * *

The whole island rumbled as Thunder birds One, Two and Three took off.

"Thunder birds are go," Virgil spoke into the comms.

Then, Tracy Island's collision detection system sounded.

 **By the way, before I reveal where I got the inspiration for Jones' character from in the next chapter, has anyone figured it out already?**

 **Sincerely,**

 **TS**


	10. Chapter 10

**Now up to 50 reviews, thanks to everyone. Sorry, more troubles with getting time on the computer, or this chapter would have been up a few days ago.  
**

 _In various places at the same time..._

Kayo and Close crept down a hallway, weapons at the ready.

The rest of their section continued on the floor above them.

Lieutenant Daniels and his troops shot their way into the assembly hangar.

Jones and his men accidentally shot open a sewage pipe.

John exited Thunderbird 5 in his exosuit, followed by the pod.

The Mechanic – disguised as Yost – made a call to the GDF.

The object falling towards Tracy Island turned out to be one of the field generators.

Then everything went wrong...

* * *

Kayo and Close reached a door and opened it. A group of the Mechanic's men on the other side turned and fired, forcing them back. Kayo kicked the door closed as they dropped to the floor, then she rolled out of the way and stood up.

The door kicked back open as a woman holding a sub-machine gun in each hand stormed through and shot Kayo in the stomach.

Close quickly shot her between the neck and the chin, killing her instantly. He then his attention to Kayo.

Kayo unbuttoned her shirt with one hand while shooting through the doorway with the other, allowing Close to move over to her.

"How bad is it?" He asked worried, the Hood would kill him if she died.

"Surprisingly, it hurt. I'm going to have to have a word with whoever made this bulletproof vest. It works, but not as well as it should," Kayo fumed, reloading her gun.

As more of the Mechanic's thugs raced through the door, Kayo pulled out a grenade and tossed it at them.

As it exploded on impact, Kayo took a running leap and grabbed the top of the door frame before swinging herself up to ambush the next enemy.

* * *

 _On the floor above..._

The group, now led by a Sandra Bennett, entered a vacuum chamber, which suddenly sealed.

Several of them screamed and pounded on the doors as the air began to suck from the room, but Bennett was made of sterner stuff than that. Pulling out her one-shot laser blaster (the Hood was having to conserve power at the moment), she blew out the window in the direction of the control room. The group gasped in relief as fresh air flooded in.

Motioning them to follow her, she doubled up and ran over to the door, positioning herself under it. As they followed however, some showed less sense however. She motioned frantically for them to hunch over, but Kurt Copper couldn't get out of there fast enough. Reaching the window and trying to climb through it, he was gunned down as the person who'd shut the airlocks opened fire with an old MG.

Grabbing Kurt's blaster, Bennett jumped up and vaporized the offender, then seeing that the coast was clear, allowed the others to climb through while she covered them.

Rounding the next corner, another goon popped out and fired his rifle - taking one man's earlobe off - before being shot down himself.

* * *

 _In the skies above Tracy Island..._

"Alan, get Three back down, _now_ , " Sally Tracy ordered as the island defense systems prepared to take out the generator.

Alan tried to slow his bird, but Thunderbird Three had simply built up too much momentum. It was going to fly straight into the winds and be ripped apart.

Frantically, Lady Penelope fired the laser disrupt er, taking out the generators shield, causing it to disintegrate as it smashed into the air currents it had created.

At the very least, it stopped that particular tide from lowering any further, but the winds were still way too strong for Alan to fly through.

Brains pushed Sally away from the comms. "Alan, you need to eject, or you'll be ripped apart with the ship," although in hindsight, he should've left the ship part out.

"Nope, not going to happen. This old girl had carried me through too much, I can't abandon her now. I'll try banking out of the way," Alan reported.

"No, Alan, too many G's. The chances of surviving..."

"Never tell me the odds," the blond haired teenager interrupted.

"Never tell me Han Solo," Brains harrumphed. "EOS. Eject him."

"With pleasure," the A.I. Replied with a smirk in her tone.

"NO!" Alan cried as his part of the cockpit separated and maneuvered down towards the sea.

Seconds later, Thunderbird Three was pulverized as it got caught in a crosswind stronger than a cyclone.

* * *

John was halfway to the Hub ship when he heard the commotion over the comms.

"EOS, is Alan alright?" He asked, failing to keep the worry out of his voice.

"Yes, he is alright. The gung ho idiot," EOS sniped. "Unfortunately John, it also means we have a choice to make. We can either rescue the Hood in the Hub ship, or stop the radioactive satellites from contaminating half the planet. We don't have the resources to stop both without Thunderbird Three."

* * *

 _Back to The Mechanic's lair..._

The next enemy came through.

Kayo leapt down onto the muscular mans back and grabbed his shoulders. Twisting hard to the left, she forced him to turn around before grabbing for his gun. Involuntarily, he tightened his grip on the weapon, mowing down the others on his heels.

Close came up and shot the man in the head, then gave cover fire to Kayo as she ran across the corridor and behind a metal shelf. Several men advanced on her, but a spray of bullets from her stolen weapon sent them running for cover. Close took advantage and ran out and over to a stairwell he had spotted.

Kayo backed up to meet him, both sides exchanging heavy fire. Reaching the stairs, they pounded up them two at a time, though Kayo spared a moment to leave their followers a present.

Bursting through the door to the next floor, they were immediately faced by about seven guns.

"Oh, good," Sandra sighed in relief. "Who knew the Mechanic had so many thugs."

Kayo checked the their position on the holographic map. "Just on the other side of the next room is the control one. Let's go."

Entering the next room, they stopped cold.

Lined up facing them, were a row of Scorpion and Wasp Mechas. Ant Mechs crawled down the walls behind them, while Snake Mechs slithered out of vents and air ducts.

"So that's where they were," Kayo mused.

"And now we're surrounded," Close turned to the others. "Which leaves us only one thing to do. CHARGE." The group ran flat out, firing at anything that got in the way.

The Mechas used their own magnet repulsors to deflect the troops bullets, then surged forward and lashed out with their tasers, saws and blasters.

Kayo shook her head and pulled out an EMF grenade from her boot. Cracking it in her hand, it let out an electronic bang. The Mecha's collapsed as she stepped over to the others. "All right, sound off. I want to know who's dead."

Close stood up and did a quick head count. "Including you and me, Five."

"Make that sixteen," Jones announced, leading his section into the room. "We've cleared the base. Now let's go get the Mechanic." They slipped into the control room, which was huge and cluttered with consoles, catwalks and bulky generators. Quietly ordering silencers to be attached to the guns, they split up.

Kayo and Jones stepped onto a fast moving conveyor belt, and as they crossed the room they kept up a vigilant lookout.

"Ugh," Kayo sniffed. "You stink."

"Don't. Ask," Jones then pointed. There, a few dozen yards away, stood the Mechanic, who appeared to be talking to someone.

Rolling off of the belt, they knocked out a hapless engineer and snuck closer to the super villain.

Then, to their shock, they heard Colonel Casey's voice. "And just how do you think you can save the world from these radioactive satellites, Mr. Howard Yost?''

Kayo frowned, Howard Yost was a billionaire who specialized in all forms of engineering, though he was more of a builder and a supervisor than a designer, which was why he often worked with the likes of Tycho Reeves.

 _What the heck is going on?_ She wondered, she certainly couldn't see Yost anywhere.

Her stomach turned in knots as the Mechanic answered in Yost's voice (it was a sound only call). "Yes, madam Colonel. I think I have a way to redirect them away from Earth."

 _What? They're you're own machines, idiot._

" 'Redirect them'. Pah! We're targeting them as we speak," the Colonel replied in a superior tone.

"But Colonel," the Mechanic reasoned. "Think about it. The Mechanic's satellites have absorbed most of the Van Allen belts, and been constructed out of thousands of tonnes of space junk from Low Earth Orbit. If we destroy them, they'll be back where they were before, hugely hindering space exploration and development. But if we send them off to deep space before destroying them... The cookie of opportunity is clearly on the table Colonel, I think we should grab it."

 _Surely you're not helping trying to_ help _her_ , _are you?_

Colonel Casey sighed. "We, huh? I suppose you'll be all to eager to lead the way on this predicted surge of technological development."

"Naturally."

"So, how do you intend to redirect them?" Casey inquired.

"Simple, I can remotely program most anything to do most anything. If you would just give me official access to your space program's electrical and computer systems, I could remotely program bypass modules and coordinate rocket launches to take control of and redirect the Mechanic's weapons."

"I see," Casey pondered. "Admittedly, my specialists can't do that. And I.R. Is too preoccupied with the atmospheric tides. Just give me a few minutes to arrange it, Mr. Yost."

With sickening dread, Kayo and Jones (and the others, who were starting to join them) realized what the Mechanic was up to. Colonel Casey was about to give him full control of a large part of the GDF's mainframe, and once in, the Mechanic would come up with every excuse to stay in as long as possible. And once out of excuses...

"Good day to you, Colonel," the Mechanic signed off, then reverted back to his mechanized voice. "Come on out, you lot. I can smell you," He turned to face them.

Kayo stepped up. "Stand down and redirect the satellites using your _own_ systems, William. Before we force you to."

The Mechanic growled. "I have told you repeatedly..."

"Is that a yes, or a no? And it'd better be one or the other," Kayo pointed her weapon at him. The Mechanic folded his arms defiantly.

Jones moved to stand in front of the Mechanic, and the two sized each other up.

"Hello Mechy, remember me."

"Hello Jonesy... Yes, I remember you... I remember you very well," the machine-mans eyes narrowed with intent.

Jones held up a flamethrower that he had procured. "Now, look here Mechy. We're giving you the chance to be reasonable, now stop those space toasters of yours. If you don't, I'm going to let rip with this, and you will not like it, no you will not like it.."

"Clive Dunn vs. Chris Jarman,'' Kayo muttered under her breath. She was very much familiar with their old rivalry, and had forgotten how annoying it could be.

The Mechanic pulled a fire extinguisher out and fired it in Jones' face, who soggily stared at the clogged flamethrower for a moment before tossing it aside.

Kayo leapt on the Mechanic while he was distracted, and bowled him over onto the ground. A moment later the others joined them as Close blew up all entrances and exits to the Control Room.

* * *

Close was the average Hood's minion in most ways: He'd been hard up, his wife had come down with cancer, and treatment nowadays was way too expensive.

But he was different in one very important way, due to his usefulness he was being paid a lot, his wife had recovered, so he no longer had any further reason to violate his conscience.

Exiting the building, he pulled out a remote and detonated the explosives Lieutenant Daniels had taken with him. Smiling for a moment, he watched the assembly hangar raze to the ground before heading off down the road.

He hadn't killed the Mechanic outright, this way the Mechanic would redirect the satellites, thinking he could dig his way out of the rubble afterwards and still win. But figure in the pipe Close had deliberately weakened, and he wouldn't be.

Life was good.

 **Longest chapter so far, hope no one minds, and see you next time.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello you all, I'm back. Short chapter this time, but necessary. Hope I still have all my followers.**

John Tracy approached the Hub ship, matching speed, direction and movement.

"How are you holding up?" He asked over the comms.

"The ship is creaking something awful after the collision," the Hood responded. "It could come apart anytime. It won't be the first ship I've lost though." His hologram glared at John, who smiled as he recollected helping Scott and Virgil take the Hood's previous ship apart.

"Great, the pod is just arriving," John reported. "Are you all in spacesuits."

"Stupid question. Of course we are."

"Great, I can have you all evacuated in five minutes. I'll have to leave a lot of you floating in orbit to make that time frame as it is, but I can maneuver Thunderbird 5 to pick you up. Agreeable. "

The Hood nodded in approval, barely keeping his excitement in control. He'd always wanted to get inside International Rescue's communications hub. "Very, very agreeable. The Hub ship will be entering the atmosphere in six minutes, so to make sure it doesn't crash anywhere, I'll blow the ship up after we evacuate. Havoc, set the self destruct."

"Got it, Dad," Havoc typed in some commands. "Wait a minute, did he say 4 or 5?"

"I said 5," John confirmed.

Alarms started blaring. "INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE IN 4 MINUTES."

Havoc turned red as a beetroot and dodged her fathers extremely annoyed fist.

* * *

 _Up in Thunderbird Five..._

EOS was not surprised to receive a call from Colonel Casey. 5,617 to 1 to see if she could help, but I.R. Was in desperate need of it anyway.

"Greetings Colonel, and how may we help you?" She made her voice sound a lot older.

"I know I.R. is busy Eloise, but can you do me a favour and take a look at this footage, will you?" Casey played her conversation with 'Howard Yost' over the link.

(What? Don't look at me like that, Colonel Casey can't know that I.R. Owns an artificial intelligence).

"Howard idea is excellent, Colonel. But why are you showing me this? Did you think he was lying or something?" EOS calculated possibilities and made a reminder to access Yost's company computers later.

"No, I am fully supportive of his idea, I would just feel safer if you and John could remotely oversee the operation instead of Yost, your systems are more secure, efficient and quicker than everyone else, you know," the Colonel flattered.

"Oh, I see," EOS considered. "Very well, when will you be ready to allow me access to your systems."

"Now."


	12. Chapter 12

**Enjoy.**

 _Shortly above the atmosphere..._

John Tracy was stumped. There were so many on the ship, they just couldn't evacuate them all in _4 minutes_ , could they?

His exosuit rockets fired. "Better get moving," EOS admonished him.

"Huh? Oh right, of course, sorry," John dove into the Hub ship and began following the heat signatures EOS was sending him.

* * *

Havoc worked to disable the self-destruct, but it was grasping at straws and both she and the Hood knew it.

They would normally have been first off, but in a fit of rage over her mistake her father had declared that they were getting off last to try and fix the problem.

She decided at that moment that she hated Kayo all the more, she was starting to have a bad effect on him.

* * *

 _Back down on Earth..._

Colonel Casey was impressed, Eloise was programming and re configuring much faster than she would've thought possible. But then again, Thunderbird 5 was a wonder of modern technology.

"How long till the radioactive satellites reach the atmosphere," she asked her secretary.

"About half an hour, Colonel."

"Thank you, and Eloise...?"

"I should be ready for launch in approximately 15 minutes, your Colonel ship," EOS reported. "And by the way, I just though you should know how lax your GDF cyber security is. That Howard Yost, for example, I have traced several dozen intrusions into your systems over the past several months back to his computer. Also, he was apparently responsible for the incident on Global 1 last month when it self repaired a previously unknown fault, which it should not have been possible."

Casey frowned. "Then why did he bother to ask permission to access my systems, if he could've done it without my ever tracing it to him or having a chance to stop him. He also ought to know from Global 1 that as long as he did no harm and only helped that he wouldn't have been punished if I'd ever found out."

"Perhaps Mr Yost didn't realize what he'd done," EOS suggested, her tone off.

"What do you mean?" the Colonel asked suspiciously.

"Don't you think he came up with the solution to the Mechanic's plot way too quickly, it was barely a few minutes after the world was put in a state of emergency. Almost... preplanned." Casey's stomach turned. It would make sense, if it wasn't really Yost she'd been speaking to, that would explain his apparent memory loss.

She turned to her secretary. "Get the air force on the line. I'll trace the call and order them to send a squadron over. If this is the Hood or the Mechanic being smart, they'll wish they never messed with us. Thank you, Eloise, and be sure to inform me when you're ready to launch," Casey signed off, deeply distressed at their close call.

* * *

 _Starting to heat up..._

John left two more of the Hood's minions tethered to the others in orbit and reentered the Hub ship. 18 out, 12 to go, and 1 minute left.

This wasn't going fast enough, even with Thunderbird 5 and the pod helping, even with some having made their way out on their own. Short of a miracle, 6 of them were going to die, including the Hood and Havoc.

Considering that, John figured it could have been worse. He wondered to himself how Kayo would take the news of her uncles death. He knew she hated him, but did she hate him _that_ much?

The gigantic air/spacecraft lurched, and John was thrown against the passage wall, disabling his exosuit's engines before he was trapped beneath a pile of pipes and wires, which shorted out the limbs of his suit.

John barely managed to control his panic. "EOS! Can you reboot the exopod remotely."

"So...y J..." EOS' voice came across as static before clearing up. "I have been diverted to another task that requires my ENTIRE attention. I can barely keep this line open, let alone do what you ask, if it's even poss..." EOS cut out.

John struggled and struggled, but all in vain. He was much fitter than the others gave him credit for, but even he couldn't lift the dead weight of his suit _and_ the scrap heap on top of him.

"Nononononononono!" John's panic got the better of him. "NOOOOOOO!" He wasn't ready to die yet, he was too young.

Forcing himself to think of others first, he addressed the remaining people stuck in the ship.

"People," he announced. "I'm stuck and we have only 45 seconds left before self-destruct. Would everyone please continue heading out, one or two of you can probably escape in time." his voice was much calmer than he was. "Don't try and rescue me, my suits bust so I couldn't get out in time even if I could be freed."

"Huh?" the Hood was confused. "You are aware of the others just arriving, right?"

"Others?" Now it was John's turn to be confused. The response was silence, but seconds later a flashlight flitted across his face.

"Tracy," a familiar voice called out.

"Ridley? What are you doing here?" John was both ecstatic and disbelieving.

"I thought you would need all the help you could get. I've got Global One parked nearby and the entire crew assisting in the evacuation, and on duty I'm called Captain so I'm going to have you on the fizzer for addressing me so informally," O'Bannon giggled as she and a couple of other astronauts worked to pull John out.

"30 seconds," the computer called out.

The trio pulled several muscles in their haste, which probably just slowed them down, but they cleared the rubble and pulled John out the exopod with 15 seconds to spare. Igniting the thrusters on their packs, they began their escape, bouncing and bruising at every turn.

"Everyone else out," her second-in-command Lieutenant Peck reported.

"I guess we weren't last after all," Havoc gloated.

"Affirmative," O'Bannon turned to John. "I can't believe you're wasting time with them, but then again I suppose you couldn't let them get away."

It was then that John remembered. "Hey wait a minute, that reminds me. Hood, we came to rescue you because you told us you had Kayo."

"I'm surprised you believed us," the Hood responded.

"All the extra pleasure to imprison you," O'Bannon shook her head.

"5...4...3...2...1..." They cleared the remains of the Hub ship. "Self-destruct."

While John and his rescuers were busy dodging heavy debris and shrapnel, the worlds most wanted and his daughter took advantage of the confusion to hijack one of the shuttles and fly off. Lieutenant Peck ordered an immediate pursuit.

"No, don't bother," Ridley growled in frustration. "We've got more important things to do."

"Yes, captain," Peck was disappointed.

O'Bannon turned to John. "There, why can't you treat me with that respect."

"I thought you didn't like being respectable around me," John retorted with a smirk.

As the Hood's crew were piled into the remaining shuttles, the pair entered Five and returned it to geostationary orbit before running a medical check. John was okay but Ridley's arm needed a sling from being strained and she would require a few weeks off after this was over.

John gently massaged it. "You could spend you're leave here if you want."

* * *

As the shield generators (you haven't forgotten them, have you?) sliced through the atmosphere, they spread sheer destruction around them. Planes flying through the lower stratosphere had their wings ripped off by the massive winds and disintegrated mid-flight, Everest's peak collapsed, lowering the roof of the world by several hundred feet.

Thunderbird One over North America, and Two over Asia, observed the growing catastrophe in horror.

"Time to play smart," Virgil flexed his fingers.

 **My apologies, but I actually had forgotten about the shield generators, otherwise the last part would've been included in the previous chapter.**

 **Adios for now.**

 **TS.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry again for the delays, I couldn't make this chapter work until a couple of days ago.  
**

 **Thanks to all my readers.**

 **And since I was apparently too subtle with regards to Jones' inspiration, the answer is to be found in the reviews section.**

 _Trapped underground in the control room of the space centre..._

Kayo just wanted to sleep, but a niggle at the back of her mind told her that there was something she was supposed to be doing.

She was brought back to reality as the Mechanic shook her. " Are you alright?" He asked as he helped her to sit up. "That flying board actually broke in two against your head, you know. But don't worry, there's no damage, I scanned."

Kayo looked around the crumbling room in surprise, the last thing she remembered was _heading_ for the Mechanic's place, so it was quite jarring to see the others all handcuffed in a group while Jones was trying to convince them not to panic.

"What happened?" She asked groggily.

The Mechanic started to cradle her, then thought better of it, and hesitantly put her down. "I'm not sure. I thought you must've set explosives and accidentally blown them when you attacked me."

"I don't remember that," Kayo muttered. Rubbing her head, she went to get up, but the Mechanic gently pushed her back down and before Kayo fully realized it had trussed her up.

 _Idiot! What did you_ think _he was going to do!?  
_

Mildly amused by her annoyance, the Mechanic brushed a finger against her cheek before getting up and heading across the room around several computer banks and pieces of equipment whole and damaged to arrive at the pile of rubble blocking the entrance.

Jones picked the locks to his cuffs and came over to join his former friend. The Mechanic didn't bother to acknowledge him, but then Jones didn't need him to.

"I would blame this mess on you," Jones stated abruptly. "But not even you would be stupid enough to not leave an exit for yourself."

"I'm heading for my exit now," the masked man stated in all seriousness.

"Sure, once you find it. _If_ you find it."

"Did that need saying?"

"Probably not."

With the help of one of the Mechanic's Scorpion drones, the pair probed and climbed over the mound of concrete, rock and metal girders interspersed with electrical wires. Finding no exits, they rejoined each other at the bottom and sat down together, looking up nervously at the dangerously sagging roof.

The Mechanic tapped on a nearby undamaged screen, and soon connected with the remaining force of Mecha 2.0's outside to find out what had happened. Discovering Close's treachery, the Mechanic made a mental note to track him down on a later date. Oh, he wouldn't hurt him or anything, just sedate him and feed him to the Mecha 2.0's, that's all.

But first, how to get out.

His ship could blast its way in, and collapse the roof at the same time.

The surest way would be to dig their way out, but that was also the slowest way.

The scorpion could climb up and through the cracks in the ceiling, but that was no use to the Mechanic, as none of the cracks would fit him (he'd already scanned).

And d*** it, he couldn't think with all those panicking minions of the Hood trying their loudest to assist the collapse of the roof whenever it groaned.

Getting up and returning to their side, he raised his hands for silence. "Now, now everybody, you all need to calm down or else I'll shoot you." His words had quite a soothing effect on them, really.

The Mechanic remembered giving Kayo escape artist lessons, so it wasn't a surprise that she'd nearly undone the ropes around her hands. Clucking his tongue, he knelt down and redid them tighter before pulling her feet back and completing a hogtie.

"Oh, come on," she struggled in frustration, it wasn't easy trying to escape with a headache. "You think I'm going to cause you trouble while we're trapped down here?"

"No, I think you're going to cause me trouble when we're _no longer_ trapped down here."

Kayo sighed, he had her there. "But then," she said hopefully. "You'll probably defeat me again anyway."

The Mechanic rolled his eyes and turned away. Kayo was a very smart girl, he'd give her that, but that was exactly why she was indispensable to his plans, that and...

He shook his head, then turned his attention to the Scorpion as it approached him, chattering excitedly. Following its gaze, the Mechanic noticed a door set high in the wall.

* * *

A squadron of GDF flyers took off from London and flew in the direction of the Mechanic's spaceport. Their commander, a Captain Wayne Rigby, was newly promoted, and as such very excited to be given this mission. Casey had ordered shoot first, meaning simply show up, swoop in, blow them up, _then_ check the place out.

Either way, Rigby would probably go down in history as commanding the mission to finally kill one of the worlds two most wanted, and boy _was he ecstatic!_

* * *

The Scorpion Mech made short work of the door with its laser, and promptly broadcasted footage back to its master. It had broken into a small room used for maintenance on the electrical system, the room opened onto the outside of the building (in case you're wondering what the door was for, it had been accessible by a catwalk before Close bombed it).

The Mechanic purposely busied himself sorting out a couple of the Hood's minions who hadn't made it, so as to distract attention from what his robotic assistant was doing. Jones and Kayo noticed anyway, but the Mechanic intended to take Kayo regardless and perhaps Jones would be able to help him on that score.

Finishing with the bodies, he stepped over to the manacled group. "Unlock," he commanded, the frequency of his scrambled voice triggering the cuffs to fall off. "All right, listen up. We're going to have to dig our way out through the main entrance, slow as it may be, that's our best chance." He turned to Sandra Bennett. "You'll be in charge of who digs where, I'll keep an eye on _her_ and Jones is really too old to help."

Of course, by _her_ he meant Kayo, and while Jones nearly retorted at being called old, he realized the Mechanic was probably doing him a favour and shut up.

Once the others had left, the Mechanic quickly ordered the Scorpion to meet them at the bottom of the wall before slinging Kayo over his shoulder and keeping as low down while running as possible.

He had to slow to accommodate Jones, which annoyed him no end, but they soon met up with the Mecha just as the Hood's minions began digging.

"So how do you need my help?" Jones queried.

"I'm going to send you up on the back of the drone holding a winch," the Mechanic pulled the loose end out of his leg and handed it over. "Then you can both help me climb up with Tanusha here. This way I don't have to leave her with her tricks. Understood."

Jones nodded, then climbed onto the Scorpion, which then started to climb back up, though with a lot more difficulty than before.

"Ha, looks like you would've needed my help regardless of Kayo," Jones joked.

"If you have an accident I can get that Bennett girl over here," the Mechanic threatened.

Of course, the Mechanic couldn't really call Bennett over there without attracting attention to what he was doing. Besides that, Bennett and the Mechanic had recently had a brief affair, and hadn't been on friendly terms since.

Jones however, decided to refrain from calling the Mechanic's bluff.

Upon reaching the top, Jones attached the winch to the Scorpion and urged it forward as he helped pull the Mechanic and his captive princess up.

Unfortunately, the Scorpion had cut the door off too roughly, and the winch was quickly cut through.

Jones and the Scorpion flew smack into a wall, causing the room to partly crumble, blocking off most of the hatch. Meanwhile, down below, the Mechanic and Kayo fell back down into another computer bank, injuring the Mechanic (Kayo was flung away, though the landing really smarted).

I probably don't need to tell you they were trapped again.

 **Hope you enjoyed.**

 **Ciao for now.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks to Math Girl, Peter, the two guests, Susan and Bow Echo for reviewing.**

 **To answer a question from one of the guests, I will discuss Kayo and the Mechanics relationship more directly, but I'm saving the most direct revelations for later vital turning points (after all, the Tracy's and Havoc have questions too).**

 **So I'm sorry, most honourable Guest if that doesn't satisfy you, I really am.**

The accident sent tremors throughout the room, and soon brought the rest of the Hood's gang over. Pulling out a knife, Sandra Bennett cut Kayo loose from her bonds, then attempted to cut the Mechanic loose from his body. William (the Mechanic) wasn't unconscious however, and pulling a gun from his forearm held her back.

Kayo gently pulled her back then called upwards. "Jones, are you all right up there?"

Jones called back down. "I don't think the winch is long enough to climb up."

Sandra was livid. "The Mechanic trying to abandon us makes sense, but JONES! I thought he was on our side," she raged.

Kayo shrugged. "Traitor or not... Jones, we need you to call for help, can you do that?"

"Right, I'll go and get help, and you can get out of there while I'm gone for help. Yes, I will do that," Jones picked his way through the rubble and exited the building onto the tarmac. Recognizing him as an enemy, a troop of cybernetic Minotaur's charged out and surrounded him and the Scorpion drone.

* * *

 _Back inside..._

Kayo pulled the Mechanic out of the mess of wires he was in, then examined his injuries. He was burnt in several places and rather slow and clunky in his movements.

"You shouldn't have let Jones escape," Sandra was insisting. "We can still dig our way out, you know."

Kayo gritted her teeth. "Then get to digging, and select one of your people to help me guard the Mechanic."

Sandra's hand rested near her gun. "That brings us to another thing," she said. "Wouldn't it be better to just kill the Mechanic. His Mechas will probably find a way to rescue him and the Hood will kill _us_ if that happens. As his niece, you should know all about his temper."

In a split second, Kayo had snatched the gun from the Mechanic and shot Sandra in the stomach.

D***it, this egotistical b**** was _absolutely no f***ing way in h***_ going to remind her of _her own_ experience of her uncle's wrath. No, not going there.

"The Hood, your boss, has been very insistent so far on getting the Mechanic back _ALIVE_. If I hear any more such taunts and suggestions from _ANYONE ELSE,_ then so help me I'll kill you. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME," she roared, sending the walls creaking ominously.

Shooing the rest of the Hood's minions back to the digging, Kayo took a moment to reflect on what she'd done.

 _Did I_ seriously _just do that?_ Kneeling over and checking Sandra, Kayo sighed in relief to find she was still alive, but unconscious.

 _Yeah, great consolation there. You don't shoot for anger and spite, just to fight crime. The Hood shoots on impulse. That's not you. Not anymore._ Tossing the gun away, Kayo slumped against the wall with her head in her hands, wishing she could erase what she'd just done.

The Mechanic of course watched all of this, and could sense Kayo's extreme distress. Forgetting to try and take the upper hand back he went over and sat next to her, even taking off his mask. He, unlike Sandra, knew what Kayo was really upset about, after all he'd been around at the time.

Kayo looked up and immediately tried to get up and leave. The Mechanic simply pulled her back down. Looking murderous for a moment, the moment quickly passed and Kayo caved, breaking down in his arms.

After several minutes, she calmed down and broke away. "Thanks," she sniffed, resting her head on his shoulder. "I needed that. I just hope my brothers never hear about this."

The Mechanic shrugged at that. "Well, if your job ever goes down there, you can join me. Well, seriously," as she glared at him. "I'm not trying to taunt you, but we were everything to each other beforehand. I even rescued you when the Hood tried to have you executed, though I'm sorry I wasn't in time to save you when he.. well... Anyway, my point is: Why the h*** are we fighting each other? By all rights we ought to be working together towards the same goals _against_ the Hood, and don't pretend you've forgiven him, you just proved you're still sore over it."

Kayo looked angry. "Don't play the good guy, after several years of separation you returned into my life, and what did you do?"

The Mechanic shifted uncomfortably, it didn't really need saying what he'd done back at the scandium ore deposit, or Bay City, or with the TV-21, or at Park-moor Scrubs prison.

"You were _much_ better than the Hood when I knew you, and now all of a sudden you're a lot worse," Kayo continued. "When you betrayed the Hood after breaking him out and nearly killed him, I was willing to believe that maybe, just maybe, you'd only been performing for the Hood up to a point. But now, you're ten times as bad, you're even more power hungry than he is. I would've gladly disobeyed Scott Tracy and deserted from the Hood to you if it wasn't for that. Why Will, why?" She begged him.

The Mechanic bristled. "First of all, what do you mean, 'betrayed the Hood'? Who told you that?"

Kayo was confused. "Um mm. Well, after the Grand Sequoia Dam business, the Hood asked Scott for an alliance against you. Scott wanted to know why you two weren't partners anymore, and so the Hood told him... that... you..." She trailed off as it started to click in her head...

" _I_ never betrayed the Hood. _He betrayed me._ Same story as you, actually. The Hood attempted to get rid of you when you clutzed the sabotage of the TV-21, but after I stopped him and the Tracy's took you under their wing he realized what a mistake he'd made and has been trying to get you back ever since."

"I know all that," Kayo snapped. "What's that got to do with this?"

"Because the Hood is doing the same thing to me. He didn't kill me for handing you over to Jeff, I was too important as a designer to him, so he simply had me implanted so he could control me with that cybernetic eye of his," the Mechanic spat. "But, after I failed to retrieve the TV-21 for him after it was rediscovered, he remembered what I'd done previously, and that I was more expendable to him now than I was back then. It was him that tried to betray me to the GDF after I broke him out, but I escaped and now he's realized that I too am more useful than he realized. He's been trying to get me back under his control ever since, like you. We're both in the same boat here."

Kayo struggled to wrap her head around it. "Well, i guess that explains you ripping out his cybernetic eye, it means he can't control you now. But it doesn't explain what you're trying to do now."

"You wouldn't understand..." the Mechanic began.

"No, that's the point. I DON'T understand, and unless I can understand _and_ agree, then you need to understand that I have to fight you tooth and nail. Please, I don't want to do that, I want you back," She looked up pleadingly at him.

"Sorry," he put his mask back on and stood up, taking several steps away from her. Kayo noticed he was moving more freely, a result of being half-robot now, he had billions of nanobots inside of him.

Suddenly, screaming broke out from the direction of the others. Kayo scrambled to her feet and immediately saw what the problem was.

There was water spewing out from several cracks in the wall.

 **I'll try and make the next chapter lighter and more humorous.**


	15. Chapter 15

Kayo stood scowling at the half-a-dozen cracked pipes that were currently flooding the place, the water covering the floor as it got worse. "And you're sure there's no way to patch them up?" She asked the minion standing next to her.

"With all due respect, Miss Kayo," the man (name: Charles Mainwaring) pointed out. "They're above our reach, and even if we could reach them, the only things we've got to stop the water flow are-" he motioned to their clothes.

"Oh, OK, well. We'll save that for later," she agreed. "When the water is a lot higher than our ankles."

At that moment, they were interrupted. "Hey everyone, up here," Jones called from the partially blocked hole he'd escaped through. "I've got the Mechanic's Minotaur's, they've agreed to help you get out so that you can help them get their boss out. We just need to clear this hole first."

There was a fair deal of grumbling at that, as it now appeared that the Mechanic would indeed get away, if the water didn't reach his injuries and short him out first. Speaking of which...

"Can you turn off the water flow to the pipes, Mr Jones?" Kayo yelled up. "It'll buy you more time to clear the hole."

Jones was pushed aside as one of the Minotaur's stepped up and looked down at the water flow. "Not good," it spoke through its cybernetic attachments. "Those that can't swim will be drowned in less than half an hour."

"How long will it take you to clear the hole?" Jones demanded.

"Half an hour to safely do it, but even cutting corners we'll be timing it close."

"Where's the water source?"

"The water tower is several miles away," the cloned bull-man (name: Theseus) responded. "But we don't have a vehicle, and it will take about 40 minutes for us to get there, minimum."

"Running?"

"No."

"How long would that take?"

"An hour."

Jones started to panic, then brightened. "What if we break the pipes elsewhere? That will severely slow the water flow."

Without waiting for an answer, Jones left with the Scorpion Mecha to round up the other drones to find the pipes.

* * *

Kayo had been listening to Jones' conversation through a microphone she had planted on him (she _was_ still an operative of International Rescue) and was playing it to the others. "Ok everyone," she ordered. "It doesn't sound very promising, so we'd better climb as high up the rubble in the door as we can while we wait to be rescued."

"We're screwed," someone said, Kayo never figured out who. Fortunately.

The Mechanic slung Sandra (still unconscious) over his shoulder and began climbing, flexing his arm at Kayo and grinning as he passed.

"Oh please," she huffed.

* * *

 _20 minutes later..._

Jones watched the Scorpions and other digging mechs drilling their way down through the concrete. "This isn't right," he muttered. "We should've struck water by now." He examined the schematics he'd been given, they were certainly at the right depth.

He was interrupted by his new Scorpion friend, who was bouncing up and down while chirruping, trying to get Jones' attention.

"What is it?" The Mecha responded by holographically projecting a scan it had just conducted, showing their diggings to have missed the pipes by several feet.

"Ah, good going Scorpio, alright everyone, start digging sideways now," Jones ordered the Mechs. "Just a few feet more, my brave robots... Hey, where are you all going!?"

The Mecha's had heard his comments about water, and not being waterproof, were fleeing as fast as they could shift their chassis'.

* * *

 _Back down below_...

They couldn't climb any higher, or build the pile in the doorway any further, though fortunately none of them had to swim yet. A David Miller had found a steel drum and was floating in it, ignoring the others pleas to let them in.

Kayo was making sure that everyone was higher than her, a decision that she was seriously regretting. She was up to her waist in water, that was several degrees cooler than she liked, and everyone was quite sure that the water flow was increasing in speed.

The Mechanic noticed her shivering. "How about a song to cheer us all up?" He suggested, everyone gladly agreeing.

Except for Miller. "I've got a song. How about: 'I'm drowning.' by Kodak Black."

Not one who enjoyed being embarrassed, the Mechanic picked up a small stone and tossed it into the drum, the force of his throw tipping Miller over into the water. It certainly cheered them up, seeing him splashing about and cursing up a storm.

"We should probably sing about warm or dry things," a Joe Beck piped up, pulling out a bottle. "Follow my lead everybody: _'Oh nobody knows, how dry I am._

 _No nobody knows how dry I am._

 _How dry I am._

 _How dry I am._

 _No nobody know how dry I am._

 _How dry..."_

"STOP TORTURING US," Kayo, Miller and a couple of others standing in the water yelled out. The water was up to Kayo's chest now, and she was starting to sneeze.

"Permission to suggest wrapping up the pipes with our clothes again," Charles spoke out.

Kayo sighed. "Fine," she pulled her shirt off and unclipped her bulletproof vest. "But I'm _not_ stripping. Everyone toss over your jackets and Miller and I will swim over to try and stop the water flow."

As everyone complied, Charles turned to the Mechanic. "If you'll look up, there are some catwalk remains right above us, could you throw me up there to see if they're sturdy enough to gather on?"

A few seconds later, he was just about to call down and inform the others that it was sturdy enough to hold several of them, when he noticed the cover to a ventilation shaft.

"Of course... hey Mechanic," he yelled down. "Toss up a wrench, there's a shaft here we may be able to escape through."

"Perfect," the Mechanic reached for his wrench, then realized it wasn't there. "Oh, no. I must've dropped it in the water."

"Don't worry Mr. Mechanic," Beck saluted. "I'll get it."

As he dived into the water, Miller called over. "These jackets are too wet to stop the water."

* * *

Jones, shovel in hand, was still stubbornly digging towards the pipes. "I'm... really... too... old... for... this..." He puffed in exhaustion. Fortunately, he was interrupted by Theseus signalling him that they'd cleared his escape hole of rubble.

Excitedly making his way over, his enthusiasm waned as he joined the Minotaur at the hole and saw the room empty, half full of water, and the mens helmets and jackets floating about the place.

He sank to his knees. "We were too late," he moaned. "We've both sides failed now." The Scorpion Mech patted him reassuringly on the knee with one of its claws.

They didn't have time to dwell on what had happened, however, for at that moment they heard the roar of approaching jets. Racing outside, they were horrified to see a trio of GDF flyers bearing down on the base rapidly.

* * *

Colonel Casey stared hard at the hologram of the young Captain Rigby as he made his report on the mission.

"So," she summarized. "You used your cannons to massacre the Wasp Mecha's before demolishing the spaceport with your missiles."

"Correct, ma'am," he confirmed.

"After you destroyed the building, you scanned the surrounding areas and found, let's see if I remember it all: An old man with a Scorpion Mech and a group of cybernetic minotaurs; A menagerie of different drones and cyborg animals scattered haphazardly 'around the place', very inappropriate report language I must say; And finally the Mechanic being held at gunpoint by the Hood's minions."

"Yes, ma'am."

"But you didn't arrest and/or kill/destroy any of them because at that moment you were attacked by a dragon."

"A robotic dragon. Yes, ma'am," Rigby fidgeted. "It used a flamethrower to melt our windows before spraying gas in. When we woke up the flyers were somehow on autopilot heading back to London."

Casey nodded. "That part is good news, it means we can trace the hack of the aircraft to their source. Also, it appears you weren't the only ones jumped, one of our only remaining spy satellites photographed the Hood's men and the old man on the ground, _presumably_ unconscious as in the next photograph they aren't there. But Lieutenant, go back to the bit about the Mechanic, you're sure it was Tanusha 'Kayo' Kyrano that was holding the Mechanic up and not a lookalike?"

"Positive, ma'am," Rigby confirmed. "If you'll take a look at the photographs from the flyers external cameras, you'll notice when she looks up that there's a small scar on her neck as if someone tried to cut it. Barely noticeable, but it's there. Anyway, I met 'Kayo' a year ago when she led us to the Hood's base in Australia and specifically remember that feature about her. There's no doubt, that is I.R's Chief of Security."

The Colonel was quiet for several seconds. "Thank you, Captain."

"By the way, what happened with the meteors and radioactive satellites that the Mechanic had hurtling towards us?"

"International Rescue were successfully able to divert the satellites, and it turns out the 'meteors' were never intended to reach the Earth's surface. They turned out to be conventional bombs, which self-destructed before they could get too low. It appears the Mechanic only wanted access to our systems, and so would never have risked actually destroying us."

"So, what now, ma'am?"

"I'll meet you personally to discuss my next assignment for you, these comms aren't secure enough," Casey signed off.

Scott had clearly lied to her, but why would he be in league with the Hood?

Nothing was going to stop her from finding out.

 **Phew, finally finished that arc... four chapters later than I originally intended.**

 **Yes, Kodak Black actually does have a song 'Drowning'.**

 **Be sure to leave a review with any thoughts/questions.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks to Susan, Peter, Math girl, Bow Echo and guests.**

 **Longest chapter yet, but the plot is moving quicker in this chapter so I hope that makes up for it.**

 **Also, there's a ton of Easter eggs in this chapter, see who can spot them all.**

 **Enjoy.**

Fuse mumbled and groaned, then tried to sit up. Failing in this purpose, he noticed he was strapped down to some sort of bed, with an oxygen mask and an IV drip attached to him.

 _Strange, I don't remember getting injured._ He thought to himself. As a matter of fact, he couldn't remember anything after getting captured by the Mechanic back in Africa.

Panicking at the memory of said kidnapping, Fuse glanced around at his surroundings. He was in some sort of hospital room, and one that he unfortunately recognised.

He'd never been here before, but he'd been shown pictures of it by the Mechanic before. If he was where he thought it was, Fuse now understood why the Hood had lost control of the Mechanic after Park-moor Scrubs.

 _He would never have thought to look here,_ Fuse thought. _And he won't think to look here now. How am I going to get back to him and Evie?_

Forcing himself to think, Fuse tried to reason as to why he was being treated like a medical patient.

 _I put all prisoners in induced comas until they can be dealt with Fuse, remember?_ A sudden voice in his head spoke.

Fuse nearly threw up in horror, his implant must've been hacked. He'd been worried about that when his father had first offered them to him and his sister.

The Hood had reassured them that he would use his cybernetic eye to protect them from hackers. Of course, said eye had been ripped out by the Mechanic.

 _Very clever two fold strategy there._ Fuse nodded.

 _Yes, I thought so too._ The voice replied, though it didn't sound like the Mechanic's. _Now not to change the subject, but the Mechanic wants you._ _  
_

Fuse thrashed and pulled at the straps, but without his exosuit he lacked the superhuman strength required to escape. His mind was brought back to the present when the door opened and Theseus marched in.

* * *

After releasing him, Theseus cuffed Fuse and dragged the muscly man out of the room like a toy. Exiting the infirmary, Fuse gazed in awe at the enormous empty hangar that in just a short time would be holding the Thunderbirds.

That's right, Gran Rocha Ranch, in the Midwest of America. The Mechanic had found out about it when he hacked into International Rescue's communication systems, and also found out that except for one month of every year it was left alone with only a single caretaker (who was blissfully unaware that the property belonged to the worlds most elite rescue team).

Well, the caretaker had been dealt with, and now the Mechanic was quite happily using it as a hideout in I.R's absence. Of course they _would_ be arriving shortly, but the Mechanic had already figured out how to remain hidden. Right. Under. Their. Noses.

Escorting Fuse to the training area, Theseus shoved him into a chair and stood guard with several Scorpions and Wasps as several people milled about the room. There was black market thief Banino, who the Mechanic had hired to negotiate the sale of several valuable items.

The new caretaker was the Hood's former head of security Bletcher, a professional assassin who the Mechanic had bribed out of retirement. Disgraced archeologist Professor Harold Zimmerman was in charge of mining out a small scandium ore deposit that the Mechanic had discovered in the surrounding mountains, he'd even been provided with a specially designed version of the Earth-breaker (smaller, more stealthy, terrain appropriate, drills instead of saws, another project previously scrapped by the Hood).

Bletcher had two men working for him: mercenaries Culp and Belloq who assisted him in securing the property. Meanwhile, a Dr Orchard, who Fuse now recognized as the voice who had spoken to him through his implant, quietly smoked a cigarette while eyeing everyone else seemingly without a care in the world. The owner of the now defunct Orchard Industries, which had been a front for the Hood's purposes, Orchard had bred the giant creatures and cloned the hybrids that the Mechanic was using for his Mecha 2.0's.

"By the looks of it we're doing more here than just trying to figure out what to do with me?" Fuse whispered to Theseus, who nodded before speaking.

"I should warn you, the Mechanic is in a foul mood. It's something to do with that I.R. Girl. Kayo, I think. You'd better start saying your prayers like, right now."

* * *

The Mechanic _was_ in a foul mood, having been rejected by Kayo, and after he landed he made a beeline for the training room. Walking up to the door he tore it off its hinges, tossing it across the room as he stalked in.

"We're going to have to repair that before the Tracy's show up in a week or two, boss," Bletcher pointed out cautiously.

The Mechanic simply growled. "I don't care, progress reports?"

"Most of the computer systems will be locked until activated on the Tracy's arrival. We won't have the hacking ability to capture E.O.S. until then. In the meantime, we can only listen in to I.R," Bletcher explained. "And yes, the premises are secure."

The Mechanic chuckled at the irony of that statement. "Banino?"

"I succeeded in selling much of the Thunderbird's old equipment, uniforms, etc. They sold at prices ranging from several million on Jeff's old hat that they recently moved here for 'safe-keeping' to 19 billion on the original designs for Thunderbird 5."

 _"19 BILLION!?"_ Several voices cried out at once.

"Yes," Banino sniggered. "You've all heard of Spectrum, that recently formed spy agency that intends to completely centralize global intelligence systems. Well, minutes after I'd advertised the items we'd stolen, _minutes_ mind you, I got a call from them practically offering up their budget if I would sell to them, they're really desperate to get ahead of the Thunderbirds, apparently. I met _Colonel White himself_ face-to-face to finalize the deal, he even had some of the biggest scientific names in the defense industry brought over to verify the authenticity of the said objects. He even asked if I could get my hands on some of their more up-to-date designs," Banino shuddered at the memory of the Colonel. "I was worried about selling it at so high a price, since we surely couldn't keep it under wraps, but one of the first things White promised me was that he would cover our tracks by making it look like the Hood had knocked the items off and sold it to Bereznik!" He shook his head as if he still hadn't fully wrapped his head around what had happened, which he hadn't.

The Mechanic was internally both ecstatic, shocked and fearful all at once, he'd been planning to try and drive a wedge between the Hood and I.R, but this was beyond his wildest dreams. He made a mental note to contact his agent Captain Black later, Spectrum was clearly on his tail and he would need Black's help to throw them off.

"Professor Harold?"

"We've mined out several tonnes of ore so far, very valuable though I'm afraid rather lackluster after Banino's tale," Harold answered truthfully, not something he did often.

"Where's Lucy?" The Mechanic looked around. "I specifically asked her to be here."

Professor Harold coloured. "Um... Well sir, you have a constant habit showing up late to meetings and the like, so when I came here today she wouldn't go with me. She said, and I quote. 'I'll be there an hour after you, and if the Six-Million Dollar Man gets there before me, tell him he needn't have sent a drone in his place.' her words not mine I assure you."

The Mechanic stayed silent for a while (very bad), then. "So she'll be here approximately...?"

Just then a woman walked into the room that Fuse had previously thought dead. She was Caucasian, and looked to be in her 20's or 30's (actually she was in her 40's, having previously been a scientist who among other things was famous for her research into deaging and anti-ageing ).

It was difficult to tell the colour of her hair under the streaks of dust adorning it, though Fuse remembered it as being red, complementing her green eyes. Her clothes were equally dusty, and somewhat ragged, resulting in a trail through the thick carpet she was walking on.

She was holding a small wrench in her hand, which she promptly tossed straight into the Mechanic's face (or mask) which it bounced off onto the floor. "I see," she murmured to herself. "Not a drone after all, and how are you today, dear boss. Things must be pretty slow recently, huh?"

Moving forward to throttle Lucy, the Mechanic thought twice and restrained himself. "Where have you been, and it had better be a doozy," he warned.

"Oh, it is. I was horseback riding, I haven't been back to my fathers ranch in years you know. Then I rolled in the dust on my way back inside to make it look like I'd been working," she grinned. "That qualifies as a doozy, doesn't it?"

Lucy Tracy, born Doyle, had been a literal slave after being kidnapped by the Hood several years ago, and while still quite the slave, had been placed in charge of all labour due to both her excellence at working and ordering things, and her ability to energize and motivate the others into working without forcing or punishing them.

Interestingly, the fact that she was still a slave was the only reason she got away with talking like that to her superiors. As she'd explained once before, to punish and get rid of her would actually be doing _her_ the favour, so the Hood and Mechanic had made a point not to react to her insults, though she still annoyed them like h***.

"Oh well now that's too bad," the Mechanic retorted with mock pity. "Because I was going to give you this nice young man," Here he gestured at Fuse. "To keep busy, but since it appears that you don't have enough work to occupy him..."

"How is she still alive?!" Fuse couldn't contain himself any longer. "Dad had her murdered by blowing an entire mountain top down on the chateau she was in, there were dozens dead, remember?"

"He wanted people to think she was dead," the Mechanic confirmed. "And even told you and almost everyone else that worked for him the same for plausibility. However, I assure you that this is the one and only Lucy Tracy." Lucy curtsied for effect. "And then of course, I took her again when your father broke our alliance."

"That darling Kayo was still working for her uncle at the time, and was actually the one who retrieved me from the avalanche moments before it would've buried me. Poor girl, she never found out who it was that her uncle ordered her to rescue, probably just as well for her," Lucy nodded soberly. "But back to business, you can't murder Paul, William, why he's..."

The Mechanic raised a finger in warning. "I can, and I will. Since you're a surgeon (among other things), I'm going to ask you to remove his implant and place it in a holographic drone of mine, the chip will trick them into thinking they have him back. Once I've finished reprogramming it."

"I'll do what you ask," Lucy bargained. "If you don't kill him. If it's busy you want him, I'm always needing more help in constructing your space assets."

"Good, that's better," the Mechanic growled. "Theseus, take him away."

Fuse couldn't help it, he let out an almighty wail. "No, don't take it from me. I'll do whatever you want, I'll..." Theseus jabbed him with a tranquilizer before slinging him over his shoulder.

"I hate that name," Theseus muttered as he headed back to the infirmary. "What's wrong with Minos?"

"Bletcher," the Mechanic pretended not to hear the minotaur. "How's the plan coming along on how to actually take the AI from Thunderbird 5?"

"I've got it all worked out..."

 **So, I've compiled a list of the aforementioned Easter eggs for any of you who didn't catch them all:**

 **Most of you will be familiar with Banino and Professor Harold, so I won't explain who they are.**

 **I made Harold's surname Zimmerman as a nod to Matt Zimmerman, who aside from playing Harold, also played the original Alan.**

 **Bletcher is the Hood's helper from 'Martian Invasion' who rigged the explosion to trap the actors in the mine.**

 **Culp is the villain from 'Attack of the Alligators', the episode where Dr Orchard appears (though in the original series he wasn't a bad guy).**

 **Belloq is the villain from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.**

 **Yes, Jeff's old hat is the one they recovered in 'Up from the Depths', sorry but I couldn't resist.**

 **Spectrum, Colonel White, and Captain Black are all from 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.'**

 **Bereznik is from the Thunderbird Comics.**

 **The Six-Million Dollar Man is a reference to the TV show of the same name.**

 **Yes, Lucy is the same Lucy mentioned at the start of chapter 6.**

 **Other fanfic authors (I can't remember if it was Math Girl or Godsliltippy) name Havoc and Fuse Paul and Evie before me, so I hope I'm not encroaching.**

 **Minos is a Greek character who owned the Minotaur in legend.**

 **And I think we're all familiar with the famous avalanche.**

 **Ciao for now,**

 **Thunderbird Shadow.**


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm back! (Finally, phew) had a _LOT_ of trouble writing this chapter, and had to cut it short in the end, but here it is. Thanks once again to all my reviewers/viewers, and don't worry I don't own anything.**

 _Back under the Sahara..._

The Hood's personal doctor finished examining Kayo.

"Clean bill of health," he confirmed. "No serious injuries to any of you, except for Bennett. She's stable, but she'll be out of action for a few weeks. I just hope you're all the same after the boss hears that the Mechanic got away."

Kayo nodded somewhat glumly, she still felt guilty about Bennett. But she shook of the feelings, after all, she had more urgent matters to attend to. "And speaking of the Hood..."

The doctor stood up a little too quickly. "So, thanks for coming, and don't come again soon." He turned around to hurry away. Kayo frowned, he always had been one of her more reluctant and least trustworthy agents. She couldn't understand why though, maybe he just liked to be reminded of why he worked for her in the first place.

"Hey, remember the time that you..."

The Doc threw his hands up in the air and growled, though more in helplessness and frustration than threat. The man couldn't hurt a fly, Kayo thought bemusedly as she buttoned her simple white shirt back up.

"The Hood's new cybernetic eye is ready. I'll be operating to connect it to his optic nerve tomorrow, all right? Now leave me alone, the Hood has been extremely paranoid ever since he realized his eye doesn't make him invincible, and if he were to find out I'd told you..."

"Well now you've told me, so calm down," Kayo soothed. She jumped off the bed she'd been sitting on. "I have no intention of stopping you from putting it back in, I simply want to know how to track what the Hood is using it for."

The Doc nearly fainted. "W-w-well, the best way to do that would be to put a bug in the software. _Or_ (and this is preferable to me) plant a Trojan virus in something that you think he might try and control," he suggested weakly.

"Just give me a timeline."

"Anytime from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening tomorrow. The Hood doesn't schedule precisely, it allows him more flex."

"Good," Kayo handed him a large wad of cash. "I think I'll go with the latter suggestion." Oh boy, did she know what the Hood was going to try to control, she'd make sure of it.

At that moment, she received a beep from the Hood, requesting she come up to his office immediately. Leaving the infirmary, she pretended not to notice the doctor pulling a scalpel out of his sleeve and putting it away with a look of relief.

Really, how silly could a person get.

* * *

 _The Hood's office..._

Humming 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' to herself, Kayo walked purposefully into the room. Virgil's avatar was there, talking with the Hood.

"Oh, hi Virgil, I didn't know you were calling," Kayo beamed, she'd missed talking to the others and so was relieved that it wasn't Scott again. "So what have you told him so far, uncle?"

"Huh? So far?" Virgil was confused. " _I_ just called, _he_ hasn't mentioned anything 'so far'."

Kayo nodded. "I see. Well Virgil, we now know what the Mechanic is going to try next. I'm afraid I'm going to need the Hood and I and as many of our agents as possible to beef up security on Tracy Island for a little while."

"Um... Wait! What? Why?" Virgil paled.

The Hood frowned. "Uh , Kayo. Not that I have any objections to visiting your Headquarters but how do you figure we'll be needing to do that, and what on Earth are you talking about."

His niece's smirk worried him. "You didn't think you could keep it from me forever, did you? I've had spies in your forces for years now. I found out about Operation Thunderbird weeks ago, history and all. So Virgil," she turned back to her brother. "You need to prepare security on the island and Thunderbird 5, because the Mechanic is about to try and steal EOS."

Virgil started and opened his mouth to say something, but was so flabbergasted he just stood there dumbly, saying nothing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, what were you calling for?" A horrid thought occurred to Kayo. "The Mechanic hasn't already done it, has he?"

Her big brother quickly snapped out of it. "Oh, no, no, no. I was just... You know what, now that you're coming back, it actually doesn't matter. You'll find out when you arrive," Virgil recomposed himself. "So, I'll get onto Penelope right away, though she's probably been listening in again."

"I always listened in to your communications," Kayo snickered. "So I'd have to get very angry at her if she didn't do the same."

Virgil was both livid and terrified. " 'Everything' everything? Kayo, you little s..."

"I love you too. See you in a couple of days, miss you, bye," she quickly cut the call and breathed a short-lived sigh of relief.

The Hood pulled out a gun, then thought better of it. "You, you, you _thing_ you," he panted in fury. "I took precautions against you spying on me while you were here, and all the while my own men had sold me out. I should've anticipated this..." he trailed off briefly before resuming his rant. "How much of that was bluff, Kayo, how much do you really know of Operation Thunderbird?" He stood up and attempted to look as menacing as possible. Not very effective considering how much shorter he was than her brothers, however.

Kayo sat down. "Well, I've actually had an idea of something like this for several years now. I mean, Brains, Taylor and Mr Tracy were ahead of their time and all, but I doubt even they could've come up with _all_ of International Rescue in as short a time as they did, and as flawless as they did. And now I know the truth. So tell you what, you sit down there Uncle, and though you already know the story, I'll just repeat it so that we understand each other. Now firstly, we're _both_ going to be more open with each other after this, right?"

"Fine, fine, you have my word," the Hood grumbled, then realized that Kayo had just tricked him into telling her anything that she _had_ been bluffing on.

 _The part about Lucy Tracy is going to be especially awkward,_ The Hood inwardly groaned, no way had she known about that before, she would've told the Tracy's otherwise. "Just get on with it," he growled in self-deprecation.

Kayo looked suddenly thoughtful, trying to figure out where to begin...

 **Next couple of chapters or so will be told mostly in flashback, rather than from Kayo's perspective (give me an excuse to flesh out more details)**

 **Hope you enjoyed,**

 **TS.**


	18. Chapter 18

**An extremely short one this week, I had alot of trouble making this chapter work, and it may still be a little uneven. Shout out if I've missed anything. Hope I haven't lost any followers in the delay.  
**

 _Many years beforehand..._

The world rejoiced, for after the Global Conflict, which had devastated all the major world powers, the world had finally united in a Global Government that took effect in the year 2043. Now, the world finally had peace, no more war, no more starvation or poverty, no more trouble. Corruption would disappear, crime, discrimination, everything would be perfect.

* * *

 _2044..._

The World Council was scared, in fact it was downright terrified.

Upon taking effect, it had discovered a classified clause from the Treaty of Antarctica, the treaty that ended the war (they picked a neutral territory to signify that there was no victor). The remaining national authorities had agreed that all information regarding the military, governments, spy/surveillance organizations and tech organizations during the war was to be deleted, destroyed or hidden away. Knowledge is power, and it was reasoned that to prevent the future World Council from gaining too much power, it was not to be allowed the knowledge that it could use to gain power.

Millions upon billions of documents – electronic and paper – had been wiped away without their knowing as if they'd never existed.

At least, that was what the public was told, and it wasn't a lie, but the Council withheld the real reason for the Treaty's demand.

Many of the countries surviving the war were military dictatorships, but they all recognized that they wouldn't be welcome to lead the new world, there were simply too many people who didn't like them and their methods. That was why none of them were on the World Council, which was instead formed out of commoners and lower ranking politicians and officers.

What the Council found out was that it had been set up to fail, that the former dictators hadn't seen as much sense as they'd portrayed, and that the end of the war without a clear victor had triggered a myriad of backup protocols designed by each individual nation in case they didn't win. What was the aim of these protocols? To win the war.

That was where all the hidden information had been taken: Prototypes, designs and plans for weapons and control only previously dreamed of.

The Council was at a disadvantage, many former spies and high ranking officers had disappeared with the 'deleted' files and dictators (no prizes guessing where their loyalties lay). The Council had no choice but to employ their scientists to build up their military as much as they could without public backlash, and to infiltrate the black market to try and locate their opponents.

Their top agents in the field were a wealthy businessman named Kyrano, a scientist named Lucy and a mechanic/designer named William.

If only the Council had realized it, but they had just sent the wrong three.


	19. Chapter 19

**I'm back, and quite relieved to finally be rid of this chapter.**

 **Turning 18 today, which make me wonder how many other authors are kids, or started out as such.**

Kyrano, Lucy and William arrived at General X's base by plane, touching down in the middle of the African jungle during the most humid part of the day.

Stepping off the plane, they were immediately greeted by guards who escorted them into a dilapidated old building. There, they were ushered through a door leading underground, and entered the far better looked after storage facility that was to be their home for the next little while.

The trio were led to General X's office where his secretary greeted them and examined their files.

"So," she said to Kyrano. "You were CIA agent 79 for 10 years, working to protect their interests in Asian companies. Particularly tech companies and banks, you also ran a saboteur ring responsible for many major 'Allied' victories. Known to your enemies as the Hood.

General X has checked you out and selected you to organize the gathering of resources. You'll be working closely with his Treasurer, but I'll let you meet him for yourself." The Hood wondered what she was snickering at, but she'd already turned her attention away from him.

"You," she addressed William. "Are Indian scientist and engineer William Hackenbacker, brother to the world renowned Hiram. You're being placed in charge of Engineering and Design, replacing our previous guy, a Langstrom Fischler."

Interesting story there, you see, General X had originally approached Hiram to serve in that position. However, Hiram refused, and when they threatened him he went into hiding and simply disappeared with no trace or leads.

It frustrated X to no end that there was someone out there capable of outwitting him (and undoubtedly he had help), but Hiram's brother William was just as good for the job, if less moral, so he called off the search for the elusive scientist.

X's secretary turned to Lucy. "So you're the wife to reclusive billionaire Jeff Tracy, and a famous doctor and geneticist in you're own right?"

"That's correct," Lucy smiled. "I understand your boss is running projects that he wants my consultation and assistance on."

"Correct, you'll be working with a Dr. Orchard on X's genetic projects," she was informed. "Honestly, the Doctor has some clever ideas, but they're so far ahead of our time that he can't make them work properly. And Fischler's disappointing tech has only made the situation worse."

The Hood was told to wait where he was, while William and Lucy were shown to separate labs. Lucy entered hers full of admiration, the lab was the most advanced she'd ever seen.

I may have mentioned in the last chapter that the government had sent her and her two colleagues to infiltrate and expose their enemies, but what I didn't mention was the the trio were already in league with General X, and that it was one of his spies that had arranged for them to be assigned to the job.

They would delay giving any vital information (names, locations and specific designs) for as long as possible. Then when they could delay no further, they would simply disappear, and the World Council would be left floundering far behind.

 _Jeff would be furious if he knew what I was_ really _doing,_ Lucy giggled to herself. He would melt down into another one of his moralistic speeches that would be technically true but cliched and not particularly smart. Not that she'd ever tell him that.

Her reverie didn't last long however, as there was a huge commotion on the other side of one of the doors in the lab. A moment later it was flung open, and several workers raced out, followed by Dr. Orchard himself.

Lucy had met him before. "Something gone wrong, doctor?" she called out as he pushed past her.

Orchard didn't answer her, but one his underlings stopped. "IT'S ALIVE!" She screamed before continuing on.

Unsatisfied and offended at being given such an answer, Lucy turned and marched haughtily towards whatever the others were fleeing from. She walked through the door, and stopped in her tracks.

A living, breathing, Minotaur had just smashed its way out of its enclosure. Something gross speared on one of its horns, it straightened up, twice Lucy's height, and surveyed the cell block it was being kept in.

A number of other genetic mutations were being held there, none of them manufactured particularly well. The minotaur had some startling deformities himself, then his gaze fell on the woman standing a few feet in front of him.

Recovering from her shock, Lucy gave her most disarming smile. "I'm Lucy Tracy, do they call you anything? Or should I make up a name for you."

The Minotaur grunted, then leveled his horns at her. Taking this as her cue, Lucy stepped forward and pulled the giant rat (some kind of intended meal?) off of his horn and began polishing it with her handkerchief (the horn that is, not the rat).

"I think I'll call you Minos, how does that sound?"

The Minotaur was part human, and therefore had a basic understanding of what was being said. Also capable of speech, he was able to give a response.

"Aright' " Minos grunted with only minor difficulty and a voice laced in suspicion.

Lucy beamed. "Splendid. So, what happened here?" She gestured to the broken bars behind them. Minos turned and growled.

"I hate rats," he said more clearly, taking care to enunciate correctly.

"So do I," Lucy nodded wisely. "They taste like chicken. What do you normally eat?"

"Rats."

"Ah, that explains it. Can I get you something to eat? Or drink for that matter?"

"I'll get it myself," Minos turned and pushed through the wall with Lucy trailing along behind him. "And besides, some people came rushing by me just a few minutes ago. I think they were running from something, and I don't want to find out what?"

Lucy looked behind her, but couldn't see anything. "Well then, I'd better make sure it doesn't get out. I don't know where they keep the food here anyway, but if you make it out of the building there are alot of plants and wild animals."

"Thanks."

Upon reentering the cell-block, Lucy's attention was immediately taken by a man in some sort of ridiculous suit stumbling along towards her. It was Fischler.

"Help," he called out to her. Then he looked up and screamed, Lucy following his gaze to rest on a gigantic spider on the ceiling.

This looked slightly better made than the other experiments (Lucy made a note of several imprisoned persons and animals awaiting experimentation. It also had an intelligent light in its eyes, and was eyeing her somewhat maliciously.

"Is it cybernetic?" Lucy asked in wonder.

"We were just about to implant it, when it discovered the glass surrounding it wasn't acid-proof. It can spit venom you know, but how was I to know it was _that_ acidic.

A moment later, the spider had dropped to the ground and charged at them. Darting over to a nearby switchboard, Lucy scanned the controls and hit a bit red button (what? The controls weren't in English, and it stood out).

An alarm wailed as the doors to all the other cells slid open releasing all the creatures inside. The spider was caught by surprise and nearly crushed in the stampede as they all rushed to escape, but managed to jump onto the wall at the last second. Fischler was more unlucky as a green skinned man with fists too heavy for his arms leapt on him before being trampled himself.

"Oh G**," Lucy shrieked. _Stay calm, don't panic, don't panic, facade of innocence._ Pressing the next button turned on several water jets built into the walls, sweeping many of the creatures off their feet, including Lucy.

" _Boiling_ water Fischler. Seriously?" Smacking away a grossly oversized wasp, Lucy grabbed a lever and used it to haul herself to her feet, releasing chloroform into the air.

 _What did they do to deserve me,_ She thought as she coughed and blacked out.


End file.
